On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7

06-14-2005 Tippecanoe Place and Notre Dame

Tippecanoe Place Restaurant on Washington Street in South Bend is open for lunch from 11:30 to 2:00. We headed over there about 1:00. In 1886, Clement Studebaker decided to build a home suitable to his position in life as president of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. Clement's first wife had met an early death, and Clem remarried in 1864 at the age of 33. His second wife was Ann Milburn Harper. Clem, his wife Ann, his son Col. George and his wife Ada and their baby son George Milburn moved in to Tippecanoe Place in early 1889. Tippecanoe Place, with four main levels (seven levels in all) totaling 40 rooms and 20 fireplaces, became a center of hospitality and the setting for many lavish parties and balls. The 26,000 square-foot mansion was designed by famed Chicago architect, Henry Ives Cobb, and built by local craftsmen. Work on Tippecanoe Place was completed in 1889 at a total cost of $250,000. Clem lived here until his death in 1901 and Ann until her death in 1916. Col. George and Ada then became the master and mistress of the house. They lived here until they went bankrupt in the Great Depression. The house was virtually empty until E.M. Morris bought it for only $20,000.

In October of 1889 the mansion was greatly damaged by fire. Only Ann and their grandson were home at the time; Clem was touring with the Pan American Congress. The grandson was in the nursery on level D (approximately the fourth floor) when the fire started, Ann saved him, although they were both burned. The entire top of the house was burned off, leaving only the stone facing, and the back of the house was badly damaged. The Studebakers had it rebuilt after that. There is a bowling alley under the billiard room on Level A. The oval door knobs on the main doors are engraved with Studebaker "S". The shutters are hand made and fold back into the casement. This was one of my favorite features of the house. The Grand Staircase was hand carved by Chicago craftsmen with and oak winged lion newel post. The Solarium had a white Mexican onyx fireplace. Clem's office, or den, has a walk-in safe and a built- in oak desk. The massive walls are made of local granite fieldstone, and the many broad porches are paved with tile and supported by stone pillars. A flight of stone steps at the main entrance leads into the mahogany paneled vestibule. Guests would arrive by carriage and enter through the west doors. They would board the elevator-one of the first in the country-and be whisked upstairs to freshen up. The formally clad ladies and gentlemen would then descend the Grand Staircase into the Reception Area. Two theories exist regarding the origination of the name "Tippecanoe Place." The first theory relates to Clement Studebaker's friendship with Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States. Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, victor of the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" fame. This may have inspired the name. The other theory comes from the fact that the grounds on which the building sits was once a favorite camping site of Tippecanoe, the chief of the Miami Indians.

Since the Studebaker days, the mansion has served the South Bend community as an American Red Cross headquarters, a school for the handicapped, and a historical museum. Today, Tippecanoe Place continues to serve South Bend as an award-winning restaurant. We had lunch on Level B at a table for two in the 'Family Sitting Room' right in front of the Eastlake style fireplace with glazed art tiles. The setting is purported to be the most romantic restaurant in South Bend. Be that as it may, it was the food that knocked our socks off. Bob had the grilled swordfish with corn chowder and I opted for Black Tiger Shrimp Penne Past with Artichokes and Shallots. Both were outstanding. Fresh-baked whole wheat sesame seed bread accompanied our lunch and was quite delicious. Afterwards our attentive waiter rolled a three-tiered dessert cart over so naturally we couldn't resist a sweet treat. Bob had no-flour chocolate cake that was more like a piece of rich fudge the size of a slice of cheesecake. I could smell the chocolate from my side of the table. I tried a yellow cake with cherry vanilla cream cheese frosting that was delightful. About halfway through each we switched! Lunch was very reasonable and we voted it one of our most memorable meals while on the road.

Our waiter advised us to take the self-guided tour through the mansion. We were happy to walk around and see the many distinct feature of each room. Bob found some cozy chairs that had surround-sound potential on the Level C landing as we ascended the Grand Staircase. The framed photos of the bearded men above where Bob is sitting is Benjamin Harrison and his running mate of Tippecanoe and Tyler too fame and tells the story of one possible reason for the name of the mansion.

We left around 2:30 and located the South Bend Post Office downtown. Then we crossed the St. Joseph River and found the man-made white water course that runs through the city. Our next stop was the Notre Dame campus. We parked in the Visitor Parking for $2.00 and walked towards the main buildings. We were dismayed to see the golden dome on the Main Building covered by scaffolding while being refurbished. Notre Dame's Main Building with its Golden Dome is the most recognized college landmark in the world, but it is not the first building to occupy this site. The current structure is the University's third main building, built during a five year period between 1879 and 1884 after the previous building was destroyed by fire in 1879. Recently, the building was closed from July 1997 to July 1999 for a $58-million renovation that restored the public areas to their original 19th-century elegance and brought them up to 21st-century standards.

The Dome has 1,250 thin strips of 8 oz. 23 karat gold, 3 microns thick. The circumference is 139 feet. The statue at the top of the Dome represents Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of God, and was a gift from Saint Mary's College just across the road here in South Bend. The Dome has been gilded 5 times in the past 120 years. It was last regilded in 1989 at a cost of $286,000.

Founded in 1842, Notre Dame boasts a 1,250 acre campus with two lakes, more than 130 buildings and a student body of 10,500, making it much smaller than many of its peers. However, Notre Dame's graduation rate of 94% ranks behind only Harvard and Princeton.

We toured the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and were blown away by the artistry and opulence of the interior. Construction of Sacred Heart Church in the style of Gothic Revival began in 1870 and took almost 20 years to complete. The Basilica is in the form of a Latin cross; 275 feet long and 114 wide. Designated a "minor basilica" by Pope John Paul II in 1992, this is a special designation given by the Pope to certain chruches because of their antiquity, dignity, historical importance, or significance as places of worship and devotion. The Church contains the largest collection of 19th-century French stained glass in the world (44 large windows, including 114 life-size pictures, and 106 smaller scenes, produced from 1870 to 1880 at the Carmelite Sisters' Le Mans, France, Glass Works, under artistic director Eugene Hucher.) Apparently most of the examples of this craftmanship in Europe were destroyed in World Wars I and II. Also of interest are the 56 murals, Stations of the Cross, and paintings of Luigi Gregori, two wonderful sculptures by the Croation sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, an altar atrributed to Bernini (one of six in the world and the only one in North America) and the Basilica Museum which was closed as we passed through. As we entered the church we were greeted by a tour guide who handed us brochures in the vestibule and told us what to be on the lookout for. Many people were taking pictures but I felt weird about it. I turned the flash off and took a few but it seemed so disrespectful.

At 230 feet the cross atop the Basilica is the highest point on campus. The spire was added after the completion of the church in 1892, by a South Bend carpenter, as payment for his son's education. The carillion in the bell tower is the oldest set of tuned bells in North America with a compass of two and one half octaves (23 bells); the largest bass bell, or bourdon, weighs eight tons! All of the gold inside the Basilica was regilded during its restoration using 23 karat gold leaf, the same found on the Dome. During the restoration, every pane of stained glass was removed, hand-cleaned and re-leaded in Wisconsin and then replaced in the church. The Holtkamp organ, installed in 1978, has four divisions, three manuals, 54 ranks of pipes, 40 stops, and 2,929 pipes. The original Gothic Revival altar, designed by Froc-Robert and Sons of Paris, was displayed at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876. The Reliquary Chapel contains relics of all the saints in the Church calendar. The large wooden cross contains a relic of the True Cross, and is venerated every Good Friday. The east entrance or "God, Country, Notre Dame" door, was added after World War I as a memorial to the Notre Dame students and alumni who perished in the Great War; their names are inscribed there. The Hallmark Channel televises Mass from the Basilica on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. ET and PT, and at 10:00 a.m. CT.

Behind the Basilica we saw the Grotto, a 1/7 sized replica of the site in Lourdes, France, where Mary, the Mother of God, appeared 18 times to St. Bernadette. The Grotto at Notre Dame features statues of both Mary and St. Bernadette and is one of the most frequented places of prayer on the campus. The rosary is prayed at the Grotto every day at 6:45, rain or shine and visitors are welcome to attend. We strolled around the grounds, passed the lakes, a corner of the golf course and several dormitories. The grounds are quiet in June and the campus was very stately and graceful.

We only glimpsed the historic football stadium from afar. Notre Dame's football program has won more national championships and more Heisman Trophies than any other program in the nation. The stadium was built in 1930 and 20,000 seats were added in 1996-97, raising the seating capacity to more than 80,000. The first Notre Dame football game was played against the University of Michigan in 1887. The Dedication game in Notre Dame stadium was played November 11, 1930, against Navy. General admission was $3.00 and reserved seats were $5.00. The Fighting Irish became the official nickname of the University in 1927. The original mascot was an Irish Terrier. The current mascot, the leprechaun, was inspired by a caricature by artist Ted Drake in 1964. We chose not to walk across campus to see the Knute Rockne statue. I said I might have walked that far to see a statue of Bobby Jones or Sam Snead:-)

A strong wind has kicked up and we are hoping the cold front they've been promising is on the way. We got a paper on the way home and got back to Mini Mountain around 4:15. After browsing the paper for a bit we changed clothes and drove over to the fishing pond. The wind had turned to much cooler air by this time and we thought we died and went to heaven. The pending front put the fish in a frenzy. I caught 7 or 8 bass on a buzz bait. I'm quite sure none of them had ever seen anything but live bait and they attacked that buzz bait with a fury. Bob was killing some really nice blue gill on his fly rod. It was after eight before the cool wind chased us in. We can't believe how long it stays light up here. And if we would move 50 miles north it would be an hour later!