Local coverage
Project conversations across St. Joseph County and the South Bend metro.
Which towns have an available provider changes week to week; the pages below break down housing stock and ground conditions community by community around South Bend.
Mishawaka
Mishawaka started as four separate settlements before it was one city. The St. Joseph Iron Works, founded in 1831 on nearby bog-iron deposits, anchored ground that varies enough that footings a few streets apart bear very differently.
Local planning notes →Granger
Granger is bigger than plenty of incorporated Indiana towns and still isn't one. Founded in 1883 as a train depot named for the Grangers, its subdivisions sit on former farmland where fill depth changes across a single lot.
Local planning notes →Osceola
Osceola in Penn Township replaced a failed neighbor. Williamsport, platted in December 1834, never took hold and was formally vacated, and the low river ground that defeated it still moves footings seasonally.
Local planning notes →New Carlisle
New Carlisle grew up around transportation twice over. The Michigan Road reached the settlement in the 1830s, and the houses from that era rest on stone foundations laid without engineered footings.
Local planning notes →North Liberty
North Liberty holds onto its older character well enough that its business district has sought National Register designation, and much of that surviving housing sits on original shallow footings.
Local planning notes →Lakeville
Lakeville grew slowly and locally before it grew as a town. Thirteen one-room schoolhouses served Union Township through the 1890s, and the farm houses of that period sit on expansive clay that moves through every wet season.
Local planning notes →Roseland
Roseland's footprint has never been large. Incorporated in 1916 about a mile north of South Bend, the town runs roughly four blocks wide, so nearly all its foundations share one construction era and one failure mode.
Local planning notes →Elkhart
Elkhart's path from river-junction settlement to industrial hub took decades. Laid out in 1832 where the St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers meet, its oldest footings sit on ground that loses bearing capacity in spring.
Local planning notes →