New Life for the Armory

At The Armory in South Bend, IN, wood from old bleachers lines the bar, iron-barred doors that were used to lock up munitions hang near the restrooms, and original red bricks lend historic charm to the entire building.

Much of what visitors to the event space see is from the original 1928 construction. “The physical structure is almost completely intact in the way it was,” says Kurt Janowsky, owner of The Armory Kitchen. “The charm of the place is because of the age of the building and what it used to be.”

The building served as a National Guard armory and shooting range and later became the Newman Recreation Center, a public gymnasium where neighbors came together to play basketball and dodgeball. The city used the building for storage for a few years before selling it to developer Brad Emberton and Janowsky, who runs the catering operation for the venue and also owns several restaurants and event spaces in the region, including Café Navarre, the Exchange Whiskey Bar and the Palais Royale Ballroom.

“There was a serious possibility the building would be demolished, and I saw an opportunity to save a part of the past,” Emberton says.

It took a year to renovate the space, which involved restoring and cleaning the exterior masonry, and stripping down the 16,200-square-foot interior that now houses a ballroom, bar and commercial kitchen.

“Inside, we focused on removing modifications to the building that were not in place from 1928 to the 1940s,” says Emberton.

The ceilings and bricks were sandblasted to remove layers of mint-green paint from the gymnasium years, and industrial lighting was removed and replaced by chandeliers. The ballroom floor, original to the building, was sanded and resurfaced to its prior sheen.