<601 Colfax>
- Date: 1928
- Style: Collegiate Gothic
- Architect: Austin & Shambleau, Architects
- District: West Washington
- Rating: Outstanding
The land that the Progress Club (designed by Austin and Shambleau in 1927) sits upon has an interesting past. It was given to Joseph La Fromboise, a Potawatomi Indian, by the federal government. He later sold it to South Bend's co-founder Alexis Coquillard. Mr. Coquillard mortgaged the land to build a race between the Kankakee and St. Joseph Rivers. That venture failed and the bank reposessed the land. A Reverend Moore of the First Presbyterian Chuch built the house, which was later purchased by Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House and 17th Vice President of the United States. His son, South Bend Mayor Schuyler Colfax, Jr., sold the house to F.C. Raff. Mr. Raff had the house razed and hired architects Austin and Shambleau to design the building for the Progress Club that Mrs. J.M. Studebaker founded in 1895.
Previously the date of this home's build was listed as 1920. However, the article "The Progress Club of South Bend", published in The South Bend Tribune on May 9, 1976 notes that the Progress Club purchased the land in 1924 and hired Austin & Shambleau in 1927. Ground was broken on November 16, 1927, with the cornerstone laid on February 18, 1928. The date has been updated to reflect these dates.
