The modern course — doors, composites, and the corridor, 1940–2026

1940–2026 · THE TOWN'S BUSINESS TODAY AT RECORD STRENGTH

The town's twentieth-century industry is a doors-and-composites economy that the older record only begins. Its earliest modern marker is a reuse: in January 1940 the post office moved into the former State Bank of Walkerton building, bought by Vern Hardenbrook of the bottling family (the banks article). The manufacturing course of record resumes with Plas/Steel Products, Inc., "of Walkerton, Indiana," which in May 1973 obtained the South Bend Economic Development Commission's approval of some $500,000 of revenue-bond financing for the construction and equipping of a facility in Walkerton, the commission's report projecting about 100 jobs and an $832,000 annual payroll and describing the firm, S. M. Shobert president, as "an established business in the county for many years." Beside it stands the town's signature modern house: Polygon Company — Polygon Composites Technology — filament-wound and composite manufacturer headquartered in Walkerton (plants at 103 Industrial Park Dr and 307 Tennessee St), founded in 1949 by its own corporate record, employing in the 51–200 range in current profiles, and in August 2026 announcing an investment lifting its medical-products capacity tenfold and adding 35 jobs. Whether Plas/Steel and Polygon are one course or two is not stated in any record read, and they are printed as two, with the secretary of state's corporation file named as the settler. The door industry is the town's largest modern payroll of record: Masonite Corporation's Walkerton interior door facility at 111 Muskin Drive employed 220 people in September 2022, when the company's WARN notice to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development announced the permanent elimination of 74 to 84 of those jobs — at least a third of the plant — the workforce to be retained through at least November 27, 2022; the plant operates today. Modern Door Corporation, 1300 Virginia St (a Plyco company), makes the town a two-door town. The smaller modern shops stand in a row: Ultra Manufacturing Inc, 648 Stephens St, CNC machining of metals and plastics; Ross Engineering & Machine, 70100 Stephens St, metal fabrication — the surname is the hardware family's, the record is its own, and no connection is printed. The school corporation is the town's public employer of scale; its course is the Schools file's, and it stands here at pointer size only.

The retail course thins to the corridor and the square: the bank at 411 Illinois St (1st Source), the used-car, parts and service row on Roosevelt Road (the dealerships article's closing), and a main street whose 1916 density — ninety names for twelve hundred people — no current directory approaches for a town of Walkerton's present size. No figure for the present main-street count is printed, because no canvass of record makes one; the comparison stands on the three transcribed canvasses against the present directories consulted, and closes there.

Sources:

1. Walkerton Independent, January 4, 1940 (the post office and the Hardenbrook purchase).
2. City of South Bend Economic Development Commission, Resolution No. 373-73 and accompanying report, May 1973 (Plas/Steel Products, Inc. — the bond, the jobs, the Shobert presidency), docs.southbendin.gov.
3. Masonite Corporation, WARN notification to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, September 28, 2022 (111 Muskin Drive; 220 jobs; 74–84 to be eliminated), in.gov.
4. Polygon Composites Technology company profiles and postings, 2026 (founded 1949; Walkerton headquarters; the August 2026 medical-capacity investment and 35 jobs); present-day listings for Modern Door Corporation, Ultra Manufacturing Inc and Ross Engineering & Machine, consulted November 2026.