The storefront rolls — the women, the immigrant shops, and the Black business of record

1868 – 1949, at the size the directories give them

How they were missed:The rolls below are the directories' own, printed at directory size; ethnicity is stated only where the name-forms and the neighborhood record corroborate each other, on the owners-roster file's discipline, and no name is assigned a race the directory does not give.

The women's roll: the directories name women as proprietors across the whole span. Mrs. R. D. Lusher keeps dry goods and shoes in Johnson's 1902–03 book — the owners-roster file carries her line among the first women's lines in its canvass. In 1921: Martin Anna E. keeps books and stationery at 106 S. Main; the hairdressers are Beach Sarah A., in the Mishawaka Trust Building, and Blum Myra M., 206 S. Main; the dressmakers — a heading of women — are Klaer Florence S., Kronewitter Lizzie B., Shadowsky Edith, and Shaffer Elizabeth, Mrs.; and the milliners' heading carries Hopkins Harry, Mrs., 215 S. Main, and Vogt V. C., Mrs., 121 Lincoln Way W., beside Lotts L. D. and Renwick L. R. & Co. These are the trades the directories let a woman sign her name to — dressmaking, millinery, hairdressing, stationery, dry goods — and the roll is printed as the record of exactly that: the women's-history file's tested finding stands untouched, that Mishawaka's women founded the city's institutions but not its factories; the storefront was the ground the business record gave them, and here it is, named.

The immigrant storefronts: the Belgian West End shops itself in the 1921 book at name size: De Meester Camiel, cigars and tobacco, 546 W. 6th; the grocers Coppens Emil O., 701 W. 4th, De Keizer Camiel, 331 Smith, and De Meulenaere Camiel, 427 W. 7th; Van Hecke Paul, butter, eggs and cheese, 328 S. Mill; Craveel Rene, meat market, 501 W. 6th; Malaise Eugene, feed, 817 W. 6th — the W. 4th, W. 6th and W. 7th addresses being the Belgian quarter the communities file maps, the name-forms and the streets corroborating each other. The community's professional firm stands in the same book: the Colpaert Realty Corporation, 126–128 Lincoln Way W., under Mortgage Loans and Real Estate — investments, insurance, real estate — the corporation of Achille C. Colpaert, the Belgian attorney whose public course stands in the government and controversies files; the corporation as a business is this section's, and the Home Building & Loan's address at his office's address, printed in the building-and-loan entry, is the directory's own juxtaposition. The Polish names: Waletzko J. F., grocer and baker, in 1902–03; Myeski J. S. and his livery barns, carried in the livery entry; Rojanovicz Peter, confectioner, 411 Laurel, in 1921. The Greek thread the communities file follows runs through the food headings: Kolakis John, fruits, 113 S. Main, in 1921, and the restaurant firm Gibson & Hazires, 118 Lincoln Way W., the second name printed as the directory spells it. The Jewish names the books give: Feldman Nathan, grocer, 724 Division, in 1921, and Rosenstein S. & Sons, whose arc from junk to rubber wholesale is in the second-rank entry. Petroff Mike, confectioner, 518 N. Main, 1921, stands at name size, his name-form unglossed. And one Chinese name: Mark Sing Lee, laundry, 124 N. Main, 1921, carried at fuller size in the laundries entry — the city's Chinese business of record in the books this build worked, a roll of one, printed as one.

The Black business of record, at anchor size: Mishawaka's first Black business stands whole in the black-history file — Elijah Powell's barbershop, practiced from 1868 for thirty-eight years — and is pointed to here, not retold: this section adds only its frame. The 1921 barbers' heading names fifteen barbers and marks no man's race, so no second name is assigned from it. The roll past Powell waits on the document the black-history file already names: the Directory of Negroes in Business of April 1967, county-wide, held undigitized in the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center's collection — whether it lists Mishawaka firms is unexamined, and it is carried in the closing article as the settling source it is.

Sources:

1. Johnson's Business & Professional Directory (1902–03) and Polk's Mishawaka City Directory (1921), classified directory — headings Dry Goods; Books and Stationery; Hairdressers; Dressmakers; Milliners; Grocers — Retail; Cigars and Tobacco; Butter, Eggs and Cheese; Meat Markets; Feed; Fruits; Restaurants; Mortgage Loans; Real Estate; Barbers; Laundries — the names and addresses as printed above.
3. Communities and black-history files of this build — the Belgian West End and Greek threads' corroboration, and the Powell record with the 1967 directory named, cross-referenced at anchor size.