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1873–1878 — William D. and Thomas H. Bulla, 88 Michigan Street
The firm: Bulla Bros. — William D. Bulla and Thomas H. Bulla — worked at 88 Michigan Street from 1873 to 1877, one of the three photographic houses Turner's 1875 directory carries for the city, and a carte de visite bearing the firm's name and dated 3 March 1873 survives in the harvested record. The partnership's end is a newspaper item: the Tribune of 27 May 1878, under the head "New Arrangement," records that W. D. Bulla bought out T. H. Bulla. Thomas H. Bulla is the better documented brother afterward, because the county histories took him up: Chapman’s History of St. Joseph County (1880) sketches him at pages 514–517, and Howard's History of St. Joseph County (1907) returns to him at pages 146–147 — the standard measure of standing in that record, a tradesman written into the county's biographical memory. The Bulla entries show the studio trade's ordinary shape in the 1870s: brothers in partnership at a Michigan Street address for half a decade, a buyout, and one brother carried forward in print.
Sources:
- Indiana Album / Indiana Photographers Project, PersonData records for Bulla Bros., William D. Bulla, and Thomas H. Bulla (indianaalbum.com) — 88 Michigan Street, 1873–1877; the carte de visite dated 3 March 1873; the directory citations (Turner's, 1873–74, 1875, 1877).
- South Bend Tribune, 27 May 1878 — "New Arrangement": W. D. Bulla bought out T. H. Bulla.
- Charles C. Chapman & Co., History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1880), pp. 514–517 — the T. H. Bulla sketch; Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), pp. 146–147 — the later sketch.