An Island Shaped Like an Elk's Heart
Elkhart takes its name from the shape of an island, not a person. The town was laid out in 1832 near the confluence of the St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers, where an island resembled what the Potawatomi called an 'elk's heart' -- the source of both the river's and the town's name.
Sash Styles From the Railroad Boom
Elkhart's growth waves -- the 1870s railroad-era boom and the trailer-and-RV manufacturing surge that took off after Milo Miller's first travel trailer in 1931 -- each left their own housing stock behind, and window replacement in the older railroad-era neighborhoods often has to match narrower, taller original sash openings that predate the later manufacturing-boom subdivisions.