Vaudeville built it. Opened in 1922 as the Palace Theatre, the South Bend house followed the standard trajectory of its type — variety bills first, then films — before being renamed for the civic use it was eventually put to. Restoration and remodelling between 1998 and 2000 gave it back a proper theatrical interior, down to a red and gold house curtain made for the occasion.
The auditorium seats a little over two and a half thousand, more than half of them in a deep balcony, and it is the home of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. Touring opera and ballet companies use it as their Indiana stop. It carries the name Morris Performing Arts Center today.