Tippecanoe Place

A Romanesque Revival mansion built in 1889 as the residence of Clement Studebaker, co-founder of the Studebaker vehicle manufacturing firm. The 40-room, 26,000-square-foot home has operated as a restaurant since 1980.

Tippecanoe Place is a 26,000-square-foot Richardson Romanesque mansion in South Bend, Indiana, built between 1886 and 1889 for Clement Studebaker, the wagon and carriage manufacturer whose company would later become one of America's great automobile makers. Architect Henry Ives Cobb designed the forty-room, twenty-fireplace limestone mansion at a cost of $450,000 -- a staggering sum that reflected Studebaker's position as one of Indiana's wealthiest industrialists. Clement named the estate after William Henry Harrison's 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe victory. Shortly after the mansion was completed in February 1889, a fire gutted the interior, requiring extensive rebuilding before the Studebaker family could finally move in nearly a year later. The family occupied the home until the Studebaker Corporation's 1933 bankruptcy forced a sale. The mansion later served as a school for disabled children from 1947 to 1970 before Continental Restaurant Systems purchased it in 1979, spending two million dollars to restore it and convert it into the upscale restaurant that operates there today.

Tippecanoe Place is widely considered the most haunted location in the South Bend area. The most prominent ghost is the Woman in White, a spectral female figure who has been encountered by both visitors and employees for decades. In one notable account from the 1990s, a hostess watched the Woman in White descend the grand staircase, her image fading away below the knees as she floated downward. Another witness described the ghost passing directly through him on her way into the George and Ada suite, leaving a trail of sudden cold in her wake. The Woman in White's identity remains uncertain -- historian Michael Kleen has noted that popular legends about the Studebakers contain inaccuracies, including claims that family members died within the mansion. Two infant children from Clement's first marriage actually died before the home was built, not within it, and Clement himself died of natural causes at age seventy, not by suicide as some folklore suggests.

The ghost of Clement Studebaker is reported to visit his office, his presence announced by a sudden drop in temperature, the unmistakable scent of cigar smoke, and pictures swinging on the walls as though disturbed by a passing figure. A maid named Beatrice has been seen by staff, and loud noises emanate from the attic when no one is on the upper floors. Diners and staff report hearing footsteps in empty rooms, eerie voices carrying through the corridors, shadows and balls of light moving through the dining areas, and unexpected temperature drops that come and go without explanation.

One of the most frequently told staff stories involves a worker who was closing the restaurant alone. After stacking chairs on tables in one dining room, he stepped away to use the bathroom. When he returned, every chair in the room had been unstacked and placed back on the floor -- a task that would have taken several minutes and considerable physical effort, accomplished in complete silence while he was just down the hall.

The restaurant embraces its haunted reputation, and the mansion's imposing exterior -- dark stone walls, heavy arches, and steep gables -- sets the mood before guests even enter. Stephen Osborne's book South Bend Ghosts: And Other Northern Indiana Haunts documents the mansion's paranormal activity in detail. Tippecanoe Place continues to operate as one of South Bend's premier dining destinations, serving elegant meals in rooms where the Studebaker family once entertained -- and where, according to decades of witness accounts, they continue to do so.