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1941–1961 and after
The working branches: The library's Library History photograph collection preserves two mid-century services the modern timeline passes over. The Prairie Station, the fourth branch library in South Bend, opened in 1941 at 1601 Prairie Avenue, in a working-class neighborhood near several large factories, serving a largely Central European immigrant population; in 1961 it was merged with the Western Avenue branch, and the combined branch's new location was in the Bellevue Shopping Center. Separately, the library ran a Business-Industrial Department downtown as its own quarters: the photographs show the department moving from 120 West Wayne Street into the second floor of the Colip Brothers building at 114 West Wayne, and the old 120 West Wayne building marked to be razed for a parking lot. Neither service survives under its own name; both stand here at the size the library's own captions give them.
Sources:
- Indiana Memory, Library History collection — the Prairie Station record (opened 1941, 1601 Prairie Ave., merged 1961, Bellevue Shopping Center) and the Business-Industrial Department photographs and captions (120 W. Wayne; the Colip Bros. building at 114 W. Wayne).