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1904 — 2022
Three centuries of government, two buildings: The infant city's first city hall rose at First and Church Streets and opened in October 1904. Its financing is the period detail that survives: a state law barred the city from bonding its own property for the building, so the hall was financed through the Mishawaka Public Utilities Company — the city's own utility standing as the device by which the city housed itself. That building served as the city's hall from 1904 until the move of 2022. The second city hall came by purchase, not construction. In early 2019 Liberty Mutual announced the closing of its downtown Mishawaka office; the city bought the company's building, renovated it throughout, and in the fall of 2022 moved its government in, in phases — City Hall, the Utilities and the police under one roof at 100 Lincolnway West, where the council sits today. Of the older buildings, the 1904 city hall was retained for a new use, the utilities building was demolished, and the police station was sold. The seat of government thus stands a few blocks from the furnace site, on the town's original east–west street, in a reused insurance office — a practical ending, in the Mishawaka manner, to a hundred and eighteen years of city halls.
Sources:
- Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — the 1904 City Hall at First and Church and its utilities-company financing; the Liberty Mutual purchase, renovation and phased move of fall 2022; the disposition of the old buildings.
- City of Mishawaka notices and Common Council minutes, 2026 — the present City Hall at 100 Lincolnway West, council chamber there.