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Photo: Nyttend, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
This beautiful downtown concert venue is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Morris Performing Arts Center is a 2,564-seat concert hall located in South Bend, Indiana. It opened in 1922 as a vaudeville house and later became a movie palace. It was developed along with the neighboring Palais Royale Building by the Palace Theater Corporation. It is a four- to five-story, rectangular, Spanish Renaissance Revival style brick building with finely crafted terra cotta ornamentation. It was planned for demolition in 1959 but was saved from demolition, and between 1998 and 2000, it was restored and remodeled.
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Though still somewhat polluted, the riverfront along South Bend is an interesting walk through the former dam system that used to power the city's electrical supply. This walk leads (or starts from) the Century Center, which is South Bend's convention center. The Mishawaka riverfront has also come a long way near its downtown. County parks along the river are popular destinations for fisherman, boaters, and nature-viewers.
See the work of artists from around the Great Lakes and Midwest.
This convention center includes an art museum, several large banquet areas, an auditorium and theatre, an historic riverfront area and large patio over the former dam that ran South Bend's electrical supply, a skyway to the Doubletree Hotel over US 31, and a large lobby with high ceilings and windows that look out toward the river and the east side of town.
See the cars that used to power the South Bend economy. See the Studebaker lineup: wagons, military vehicles, and electric cars from the 1930s. A three-story museum, the lower level of which shows the cars on lifters and on the ground for perusal. Featured exhibits include Studebaker concept cars.
The Potawatomi Zoo is one part of Potawatomi Park, which includes a softball diamond, tennis courts, a public pool, picnic area, band shell, and Kid's Kingdom Playground. Founded in 1902, it is Indiana's oldest zoo. It features over 400 animals on 23 acres of land, and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Admission is between $5 and $7. The zoo also has a collection of small primates not found in many zoos, such as bonobos, and has added another animal habitat and a perimeter-hugging train (oriented toward children) and have been expanding other animal habitats.
See the legendary campus for yourself. Guided tours are available through the Alumni Association. Notable attractions include the grotto, the Golden Dome, Notre Dame Stadium, the Hesburgh Library and The Word of Life mural (aka Touchdown Jesus) on its stadium-facing wall, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, St. Joseph and St. Mary's Lakes, the stations of the cross, and the Notre Dame Bookstore, which is the largest college bookstore in the country.