Once a thriving community, Benham was incrementally dismantled through a series of destructive Urban Renewal interventions starting in the 1950s and culminating in the 1980s, when the City of Elkhart used eminent domain to raze the single-family homes west of Benham Avenue in the name of “progress.” The Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce engaged the ND Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative to restore Benham West, regenerate the surviving community, and reconnect activity between the neighborhood and the downtown.