The Hering House was an important center of learning and cultural activity for South Bend's African American community in the first half of the twentieth century. It was modeled after similar efforts at Chicago's Hull House.

Frank Hering was a history and economics professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also the university's first basketball and baseball coach and its third football coach.

In 1924, Frank Hering, along with his wife Claribel, bought a twenty-year old church building on South Bend, Indiana's Division Street (present-day Western Avenue). Frank and Claribel, with a group of mostly white progressive reformers, established Hering House with the purpose of providing, as stated in its declaration of trust, "the colored people of South Bend, Indiana, a community center for their religious, educational, recreational and social welfare activities." Despite Hering House's focus on the African American community, its founding documents required that only two of the seven person Board of Directors be persons of color. This language and leadership structure remained until 1951.

With segregation rampant in many similar South Bend institutions through the 1940s and into the early 1950s (e.g. the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, the Boy and Girl Scouts, the Natatorium, etc.), Hering House became the predominant activity center for South Bend's African American community. As the city integrated during the early 1950s, Hering House continued its prominence despite duplicating the activities of the aforementioned institutions. By this point, however, the facilities were in desperate need of repair, and with Hering House duplicating the services of now integrated facilities, it was increasingly difficult to justify its existence. In 1963, the Board voted to disband and officially close the Hering House.