• Date: 1922
• Style: Art-Deco/parapet
• Architect: Noel S. Dunbar
• District: Downtown Historic Registry

In 1922, William Riley Hinkle had this two-story automobile showroom and garage built for his Ford dealership. The building was designed by a local architect, Noel S. Dunbar. Prior to acquiring the Ford dealership in South Bend in 1911, Hinkle had worked in a number of jobs, including one in the sales office of the Studebaker Manufacturing Company. Later, Hinkle was appointed to the Board of Works, of which he became president, and in 1930 he was elected Mayor of South Bend. In 1938 Hinkle retired from the automobile dealership and in 1940 the building and Ford dealership were purchased by Romy Hammes, an automobile dealer from Kankakee, Illinois. In the September 23, 1946, issue of Life Magazine, in an article on Romy Hammes and his success, Hammes is pictured with an architectural drawing of 225 N. Lafayette with its proposed addition (now standing). Two other photographs of the interior and exterior of the building were published in the five-page article. The building is an expressive example of the functional architecture used in the early 20th-century for display and repair of the increasingly popular automobile. The large ground floor windows reflect its use as a display area, while the second story was used for servicing automobiles, typical in this type of structure. The rocket-like finials that decorate the main facade are particularly of note, since they anticipate the soaring Art Deco and streamlined Moderne styles that were to become associated with an era fascinated by speed and motion.

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