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1900 – PRESENT
The second enclave stood inside the old grid, south of the tracks: Italian Mishawaka counted 8 people in 1900 and 993 by 1930, about half of them foreign-born — the demography is culture's count; the geography is this section's. The south-side enclave lay between the railroad tracks, Thirteenth, Spring and Union Streets: the same southwest quadrant as Belgian Town but east of it and inside the original city, a walk from the Dodge works on Union Street and the downtown four blocks. Its institutional anchor is the DeAmicis Mutual Aid Society, founded in 1917, whose hall at the northwest corner of Spring and Eleventh Streets was built in 1928 and remains in use today — the mutual-aid practice is culture's; the corner, the date and the survival are the map's. A neighborhood whose society hall of 1928 is still its hall in 2026 has a documented continuity few American enclaves can show, and the record states it in one line because one line is what the record carries.
Sources
- Culture file of this record — the counts (8 in 1900; 993 by 1930, about half foreign-born), the south-side bounds (the tracks, Thirteenth, Spring and Union Streets), the DeAmicis Society (founded 1917) and its hall at Spring and Eleventh, built 1928, in use today.