A Visit to the (Other) Chapin Mansion

The Chapin House in South Bend is impressive, but the one in Niles is even better.

BY AARON HELMAN // POSTED APRIL 11, 2025

Every good South Bender knows the Chapin House, the 1857 Gothic Revival masterpiece at 601 Park Avenue. The Chapin House is one of the oldest extant homes in the county, and it remains one of the grandest and most impressive: punctuated originally by its steep cross-gabled roof and lancet windows, surrounded by young trees that have become old ones.

South Bend's Chapin house was remodeled once with notes of Queen Anne clapboard and again with a glass-enclosed carport. In the 1950s it was pink but has since been put back together again. The building is an amalgam of architectural styles and eras, and at 5,000 square feet, it's an impressive home to be certain.

But what South Benders might not know is that there's another Chapin Home. It's not that far away. And it's even better.

In 1834, at about the same time Horatio Chapin was establishing himself in South Bend, his third cousin, Henry Chapin, was setting up camp a little further north, in Edwardsburg, Michigan. It's not known if the two men were aware of their relation or if they were very much aware of each other at all.

Up in Michigan, Henry Chapin's first enterprise was a general store he ran in partnership with George Bostwick. The business arrangement was short-lived, and the partnership was dissolved in 1838.

Chapin's next endeavor would take him from Edwardsburg to Niles, where he opened a second general store and wool carding operation with a partner called S.S. Griffin. This business failed as well, and the pair closed up shop and declared bankruptcy in 1861.

This might have looked a lot like the end of the road. Henry was 47 years old and penniless. Down in South Bend, a 58-year-old Horatio had already been living in his stately home for four years.

There are legends and disputes about what happened next, stories that sound too good to be true, shrouded in mystery and loose facts. According to one account, Henry Chapin was given a mostly useless tract of land in the faraway Upper Peninsula of Michigan by a debtor who couldn't make good on what he owed the shopkeeper. Another story tells that the land was considered so worthless that his bankrupters let him keep it even as they seized the rest of his assets, leaving Chapin with nothing but a frozen wasteland on a faraway peninsula.

Whatever the tale, the truth is that Chapin did own a tract of land around a mountain in the Upper Peninsula that was yet to receive its famous name: Iron Mountain. Soon enough, there would be a city there too, and it would be called Iron City.

It was 1878 by the time they realized how much iron and wealth was on Chapin's land. By now, Henry was 65. Down in South Bend, Horatio had been dead seven years.

In a frightening hurry, Henry A. Chapin of Niles, Michigan had become among the wealthiest men in southern Michigan, earning annual royalties upwards of $300,000 for the rest of his life. Adjusted for inflation, that's akin to making $10 million a year in 2025 money.

In 1882, Henry A. Chapin, now 69 years old, began construction on what was then the outskirts of Niles, Michigan. The red bricked behemoth was an audacious Queen Anne, sprinkled with leaded, stained-glass windows, intricate handcarved wood, and wallpapered with busy grandeur. At more than 40,000 square feet, the place dwarfed the fine Chapin House in South Bend.

Henry Chapin lived in the home until his death in 1898 at the age of 85.

His house remained in the family for a while, before it became the Niles City Hall for nearly eighty years until December 2012. Unfortunately, while Chapin had outfitted his home with almost everything imaginable, he hadn't imagined how his house might function as an accessible governmental building after the passage of the ADA.

Niles built a new - accessible - City Hall and turned the old Chapin Mansion over to the Niles History Center. The place has been open for tours pretty much ever since.

There's a lot to love about a tour of the Niles Chapin Mansion. The impressive home remains impressive. Stylish turrets mark perfect corner reading nooks. Wooden bannisters and trim are filled with intricate details. Fireplaces tell stories in marble and brick. Even the thresholds between rooms bring reason for pause as curious eyes study details where they wouldn't ever expect to find them:

The striker plates on the door frames are basically tiny works of art.

At the same time, there are moments that make you sad. Busy wallpapers best described as mosaic fever dreams have been painted over as have the designs on many of the ceilings. It's easy enough to understand why, of course. The oppressive busyness of Chapin's design taste wasn't exactly conducive to a government office.

Experts have been able to uncover sections of those wallpapers, but whether the home will ever be fully put back together again remains to be seen.

The Henry A. Chapin Mansion is at 508 E. Main Street. The Niles Historical Society makes its home in the former stablehouse. A visit to the museum is free, but there is a small charge for house tours. It's worth the visit.