South Bend City Cemetery, a 21.36-acre designed landscape is South Bend’s oldest cemetery, founded in 1832. City Cemetery is situated immediately west of the city’s downtown core, just northwest of the West Washington National Register District, added to the Register in 1975 and is about one mile southwest of the St. Joseph River. The trapezoid shaped site, a result of multiple expansions, contains approximately 14,800 burials. It is composed of lots that are of a regular grid pattern as well as an (1899) expansion of irregular and circular lots. These later meandering pathways, in response to the little topographic variation, were designed to provide a variety of changing vistas.

The style of City Cemetery ranges from municipal to lawn park and includes veterans’ sections and a potter’s field. Characteristic of the lawn park movement of the late 19th century, the cemetery site combines a variety of three-dimensional stone types, as well as a wide variety of tree species. Today surrounded by an urban neighborhood, City Cemetery is a unique representation of this cemetery type rarely seen in a rapidly developing urban setting.

A tour of this cemetery is not currently scheduled. However, if you would like to keep up to date on the latest cemetery tours, you can follow Michiana Cemetery Tours on Facebook (@Michiana Cemetery Tour or by clicking the button below):

Polish efforts to organize and establish an effective local identity went beyond the establishment of multiple Roman Catholic parishes, neighborhoods or ethnic shopping areas. By the turn of the 19th century, they were numerous enough to establish political and social institutions to legitimize their existence.

As early as 1901, The South Bend Tribune noted;

“Leading Polish citizens had started a movement for a cemetery of their own”.

Prior to this, the only Catholic cemetery in the area was a parcel of land that Fr. Sorin had developed for South Bend Catholics near Notre Dame, known as Cedar Grove Cemetery. Since its inception, the priests of the University, who acted as undertakers and sextons, cared for it. Today, the cemetery is under the care of the University.

The Polish people living on the West Side of the city objected to submitting to what they viewed as a monopoly on burial plans. The local Polish language paper, the Goniec Polski, commented on the swelling movement and the subsequent controversy that pitted the local Polish community against the Bishop of Fort Wayne, who demanded ownership of the St. Joseph Cemetery by the diocese. Had it not been for the compromise of local Holy Cross pastors, this incident might have precipitated a break from the Roman Church over cemetery ownership.

They formed a working group of leading Polish leaders of each parish, the two groups of Polish Falcons, and the editor of the Goniec Polski to progress the project. The reasons for the desire to establish a second cemetery were several:

(1) Cedar Grove was some distance from the West Side, limiting graveside visits

(2) The care of Cedar Grove provided by the Brothers left something to be desired

(3) Poles simply wanted to be buried alongside other countrymen

The association’s work began with the approval of the Bishop of Fort Wayne, who was initially the honorary president of the group. Between 1904 and 1906, the association of lay people raised money, purchased property and established a funeral insurance plan to help individuals prepay for their funerals. The lay leaders felt that the association owned the cemetery. At this time, a crisis erupted when the Bishop informed the association that he would not “bless the cemetery” until they turned the title over to the diocese. At a meeting on March 21, 1906, the more than three hundred people who had contributed to the project voted to incorporate the cemetery. The bishop refused to bless the cemetery and forbade the local priesthood to provide Christian burial.

Over the next two years, this painful process continued, with several hundred souls being laid to rest without Christian burial. Local clergy were bound to obey the Bishop, and local Poles would not bend to extortion. Eventually, the bishop and the association agreed after Father Zubowicz of St. Casimir Church, with his pastoral wisdom, began the practice of blessing each person’s grave at St. Joseph’s Cemetery. The bishop opined that further pressure would serve no purpose other than a potential break with the Roman Church by Polish parishioners.

This self-fulfilling prophecy occurred in 1914 when Father Zubowicz transferred to St. Hedwig parish and the bishop’s refusal to discuss his replacement with lay leaders led to open revolt and “Bloody Sunday”.

Many Polish families left the Roman Church and joined St. Mary’s of the Holy Rosary PNCC, which ministers to its parishioners to this day.

Paraphrased from Holy Cross & South Bend Polonia by Rev David Stabrowski CSC 1991

A tour of this cemetery is scheduled for September 18, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. Read about it by clicking here

Established in 1908, Riverview Cemetery in South Bend, Indiana is located near the historical marker La Salle’s Landing.  Much of the grounds are located on a bluff above the St. Joseph River. The cemetery has 27 private mausoleums, more than any other in Indiana.

Riverview Cemetery offers cremation gardens, inside and outside niche banks, niche library in historical home, six mausoleums, three lawn crypt gardens, and traditional in-ground burial sections.

Riverview Cemetery is the final resting place for many of South Bend’s most famous: J.M. and Clem Studebaker, James Oliver, Alfred Miller, Joseph B. Birdsell, George Wyman, Abraham Lincoln Brick, and many more.

The cemetery is located in Portage Township on the east side of Portage Avenue at its intersection with Lathrop Street.

A tour of this cemetery is not currently scheduled. However, if you would like to keep up to date on the latest cemetery tours, you can follow Michiana Cemetery Tours on Facebook (@Michiana Cemetery Tour or by clicking the button below):

On May 8, 1914, a group of South Bend businessmen founded the South Bend Highland Cemetery Association. The cemetery covers 115 acres and has a mausoleum that was designed and built by Sidney Lovell and his company Lovell & Lovell. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that Lovell, alone or in association with his son, designed 56 mausoleums and mausoleum additions in his lifetime.

A tour of this cemetery is not currently scheduled. However, if you would like to keep up to date on the latest cemetery tours, you can follow Michiana Cemetery Tours on Facebook (@Michiana Cemetery Tour or by clicking the button below):