Houses moving on South Bend streets include Notre Dame coach's, candymakers', oldest building
SOUTH BEND — If it's seemed like you keep seeing houses moving along the streets of the city, it's not just in your head.
Two separate historic structures have moved this month, and a third was approved to be moved soon.
Knute Rockne's family home
The house that Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne lived in for most of his renowned 13-year tenure leading the Fighting Irish moved May 9. A nonprofit called Habitat for Missions will renovate and sell the home to raise money for Covenant Christian School in Mishawaka.
Rockne and his family lived in the 1006 St. Vincent St. house, near modern-day Eddy Street Commons, from 1920 to 1929. In the 13 years he coached Notre Dame from 1918 to 1930, he led the team to 105 wins and only 12 losses.
The city is still negotiating a settlement of damages when a previous moving company, lacking the required permits, severely cut mature trees along the route of the move.
Irish homecoming: Football coaching legend Rockne reburied at University of Notre Dame
Navarre Cabin
The historic Navarre Cabin, the oldest structure in St. Joseph County, moved May 15 from the park where it sat for 120 years.
The History Museum, the cabin's owner since saving the structure from demolition in 1895, moved the 1820 home from Leeper Park to the museum's campus. Museum leaders plan to make the cabin the center of an immersive exhibit about the lives of pioneers and Native Americans in the early 19th century.
Longtime soda fountain owners' house
A plan to move The Poledor House, built around 1913 at 211 W. Marion St. just south of Memorial Hospital, two blocks west to a site in the Chapin Park Historic District earned the city of South Bend's approval, with a proposed move date of Thursday, June 20, according to an agreement passed by the Board of Public Works.
Members of the Poledor family had lived in the home for more than a century until Ted Poledor died in 2022 at age 90, Todd Zeiger of Indiana Landmarks said. The family ran The Philadelphia, a downtown store with a soda fountain and lunch counter that sold ice cream, chocolate and candies from 1901 to 1972.
Sweet deal: Longtime South Bend candymaker's home to avoid demolition, move to historic district
The building that housed the shop at 116 N. Michigan St. was torn down the next year. The site is now home to a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Houses belonged to Knute Rockne, Pierre Navarre and Poledor family
