The Portage Manor shut down in 2023 after more than 115 years of social welfare in South Bend, Indiana. It started as a county poor farm, constructed on Portage Avenue in 1906, then was known as the South Bend Infirmary, and later the Portage Manor. The last picture is only included as a reference to the building from which these BINGO cards were acquired.

Portage Manor has a long and infamous history in St. Joseph County. As the County Infirmary, it was built in 1906 at a cost of $110,000. It’s a two story brick building in a classic revival architectural style with four ionic columns in front of two wings that form a Y pattern. It looms over Portage Avenue, a symbol of St. Joseph’s social history. But for as beautiful of a structure Portage Manor is on the outside, what went on inside sometimes was downright ugly. Accusations of physical cruelty from administrators plagued its history. And operations were often muddied by local politics.