The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
Organized 1895 — clubhouse dedicated October 1, 1896
The businessmen's clubhouse: Downtown's club was built by trade. Howard records that the Commercial-Athletic Club "was organized in 1895, when the South Bend Athletic association was formed for the encouragement of athletic games. The institution afterwards took up the commercial interests of the city, although the athletic feature was still encouraged, and in June, 1896, the name was changed to the Commercial-Athletic Club. The fine club house on Colfax avenue, between Main and Lafayette streets, was dedicated October 1, 1896." Across the street stood the Elks' Temple. Howard prints the club's full membership roll — the city's business leadership, a hundred names and more, judges of both courts as honorary members — and its standing: the club rooms were "the gathering place of the business interests of the city of South Bend," where "many of the most important enterprises that distinguish the Queen City of the St. Joseph valley" were inaugurated. The club's end is not documented in the sources reached; the Chamber of Commerce that the city's record shows at work in the next decade inherited its function, but no document reached here ties the two together, and none is asserted.
Sources:
- Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Vol. I (1907), pp. 458–459 — the club's organization in 1895, the June 1896 renaming, the October 1, 1896, clubhouse dedication, the membership roll, and the club's standing in the city's business life.