Normain Heights: the veterans' subdivision, whole

1946 – PRESENT

The subdivision began as a housing emergency: Mishawaka came out of the Second World War so short of housing that in January 1946 the city appointed a housing coordinator, J. A. Riggs. The answer three veterans' organizations built stands on the city's north side. The federal record — the National Park Service's National Register nomination for the Normain Heights Historic District — names the builder as Mishawaka Vets' Homes, Inc., formed by United Rubber Workers Local 65, American Legion Post 161 and VFW Post 360: a rubber workers' local and two veterans' posts, building for returning members. The Indiana Historical Bureau marker at the site names the corporation "Veterans' Homes of Mishawaka, Inc., founded by veterans, 1946." Both names stand in the record as printed — the federal nomination's and the state marker's — and this section carries both rather than choosing. The city annexed eighty acres of farmland for the subdivision; groundbreaking came on 13 November 1947.

The build itself is doubly documented. The state marker (IHB 71.1997.1, erected 1997 by the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Beiger Heritage Corporation, standing on the fire station lawn at 2332 North Main Street and McKinley Highway) records: built 1947–1949; 315 houses on battle-named streets, to seven designs; aluminum siding, a complete kitchen and bath, central heating, landscaping. The National Park Service's record gives the district's development as 1946–1951 — both datings stand — and its architecture: the architect was Karl Schwartz, and the seven house types were randomly scattered through the plat, for low-to-moderate-income families, in the Modern Movement manner. The streets carry the war the builders had come home from: Normandy Drive, Ardennes, Palau, Bastogne, Leyte, St. Lo and Guam. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 20 March 2002 (reference 02000203), on a nomination by Glory-June Grieff of July 2001, its bounds roughly the 2300–2900 blocks of North Main Street, the 2300–2800 blocks of Normandy, and the 100–200 blocks East of Ardennes, Palau, Bastogne, Leyte, Saint Lo and Guam — 224 contributing buildings and one contributing site. The memorial at Guam and Normandy was expanded in 1997 with four one-ton practice shells from the battleship USS Wisconsin. In October 1963 the city dedicated its North Side Fire Station on North Main Street in Normain Heights — the same station ground where the marker now stands. The deed restriction the subdivision's houses were sold under — a Caucasian-only restrictive covenant, documented in the Tribune's 2002 account and unenforced in resident Teri Speiser's memory — is the culture file's anchor and is cross-referenced, not retold.

The neighborhood's present organization is part of its record: the Normain-Northway Neighborhood Association organized the 2002 National Register celebration, and Normain Park stands on East McKinley Avenue. Normain Heights is the one Mishawaka neighborhood whose founding documents are federal, whose builder is named three ways in three records, and whose streets are a muster roll — the most completely documented subdivision in the city, and the standard this section measures the others' thinner paper against.

Sources

1. National Park Service, National Register nomination, Normain Heights Historic District (nomination by Glory-June Grieff, July 2001; listed 20 March 2002, ref. 02000203) — Mishawaka Vets' Homes, Inc. and its three forming organizations; Karl Schwartz; the seven types; the district bounds and the 224 contributing buildings; developed 1946–1951.
2. Indiana Historical Bureau marker 71.1997.1 (1997) — "Veterans' Homes of Mishawaka, Inc., founded by veterans, 1946; built 1947–1949; 315 houses"; the marker text and site, 2332 North Main Street.
3. Ball Band file of this record — housing coordinator J. A. Riggs appointed January 1946; Local 65's role.
4. Spine file of this record — the eighty annexed acres and the groundbreaking of 13 November 1947.
5. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History (city-commissioned) — the North Side Fire Station dedication, October 1963.
6. Culture file of this record — the restrictive covenant (South Bend Tribune, 2002), the 1997 memorial expansion, the Normain-Northway Neighborhood Association, Normain Park.