The Princess City's Industrial Rebuild
The Princess City nickname is older than most of Mishawaka's housing stock. It traces to the legend behind the town's name -- a Shawnee chief's daughter -- layered onto a settlement that began with bog-iron mining and the 1831 St. Joseph Iron Works, merged into the city of Mishawaka by 1833, and rebuilt after an 1872 fire around industry like Ball Band (later Uniroyal) and Dodge Manufacturing.
Older Construction, Higher Humidity
A lot of Mishawaka's housing dates to the industrial rebuild that followed the 1872 downtown fire, when Ball Band, Dodge Manufacturing, and Perkins Windmills drew workers into new neighborhoods near the St. Joseph River. That combination -- older construction methods and a river-adjacent water table -- means humidity and moisture control in Mishawaka's crawl spaces and basements often has to work harder than it does in the area's newer subdivisions.