The armory line, III · 2402 East Rose Street, and its return to service

— 2025–26

A second state armory stood empty for almost four years, and is being brought back: The South Bend Armory at 2402 East Rose Street — one of more than sixty armories the state keeps — sat vacant for almost four years before the Guard's statewide twenty-year armory modernization program reached it. The renovation, by general contractor F.H. Paschen, began with preconstruction in October 2025 and work from December 2025 — the five rooftop units and the heating plant first (a boiler, an 80,000-BTU furnace, two water heaters), then a 120-day interior program of classrooms re-carpeted, thirteen new windows, fresh paint and new lighting — aimed at completion in March 2026, to serve as the temporary home of some 130 soldiers of an Indiana Army National Guard engineer company while that company's own station is rebuilt. The company's identity is not named in the contractor's account or in the Guard coverage found, and it is left unnamed here. One further name attaches to the building in a single source: the contractor's project page also calls the Rose Street facility "the CPT Lyle J. Thompson USARC." No second source — and nothing in the Military Department of Indiana's own armory listings, which carry the building simply as the South Bend Armory — confirms that name for this building, and it is printed here as the contractor's statement only, unresolved. What is settled is the direction of travel: after the Eddy Street hall passed to events and the Guard consolidated on Kemble Avenue, the Rose Street armory's return puts a second Guard roof back over South Bend soldiers.

Sources:

1. F.H. Paschen, "The Heat is on: F.H. Paschen Restores South Bend Armory for Indiana National Guard" (19 January 2026) — the 2402 E. Rose Street address, the almost four years vacant, the October 2025 preconstruction and December 2025 start, the March 2026 completion aim, the 130 soldiers of an Indiana Army National Guard engineering company as the temporary occupants, and the "also known as the CPT Lyle J. Thompson USARC" line, which no other source found repeats.
2. DVIDS, "Rep. Erin Houchin, Indiana National Guard Open New Modernized Bloomington Armory" (April 2026) — the statewide twenty-year modernization plan, with renovations and modernizations of armories in Martinsville, South Bend and LaPorte among the projects named.