A history of Elkhart,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Elkhart from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In 1829, the Village of Pulaski was established, consisting of a post office, mill, and a few houses on the north side of the St. Joseph River. Dr. Havilah Beardsley moved westward from Ohio, and on August 9, 1821, purchased one square mile of land from Pierre Moran (a half-French, half-Native American Potawatomi Chief) in order to establish a rival town named Elkhart. The town of Elkhart was first plotted with 48 lots on April 30, 1832. In 1839, the Pulaski Post Office was officially changed to Elkhart. Elkhart was incorporated as a town in 1858 and in 1875 as a city.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Elkhart’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewDecamp bridge across Elkhart River, 1910: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Elkhart, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Decamp bridge across Elkhart River (1910) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.