Chapter One
The Castle of South Bend
Ashlar cut granite stone, a captivating floor plan, a high-pitched roof, and a corner turret, the house has been called a castle possibly since the day it was finished.
Built around 1888 for the businessman William L. Kizer, the three-story house was designed in the Romanesque Revival style.
Kizer had founded two South Bend businesses with his partner Jacob Woolverton: Kizer & Woolverton, dealing in financial instruments and real estate, and the South Bend Malleable Range Company, which manufactured coal and wood ranges. He invested in railroads and timber, served as a bank director, and held appointments in city government.
Their son Ward died at seventeen in 1902. Horace was lost to a stroke at forty. Their daughter Willomine, a two-time champion of the St. Joseph Valley Women's Golf League, and a fisher, hunter, and tennis player, died in 1929, two years after her mother. She left behind an estate worth nearly ten million dollars in today's value.
A century between owners
The house sat vacant for several years before serving as a sanatorium. In 1947 it was divided into apartments, a use that persisted for decades. In 1975 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure of the West Washington Historic District — a neighborhood of other quiet giants: Copshaholm (the Oliver Mansion), Tippecanoe Place (Clement Studebaker's home), and Frank Lloyd Wright's DeRhodes House down the street.
By 2012 the property had become an eyesore and a public-safety concern. Indiana Landmarks stepped in, in partnership with the City of South Bend, and began a full exterior restoration — preparing the house for whoever would come next.
Now
The Castle stands again on its corner: ashlar walls cleaned, red tile turrets crisp against the sky, copper downspouts turning slowly to green. The interior is another chapter — one being written now, by hands from the neighborhood.