The restored Perkins Windmill was originally gifted by John M. Perkins to the Studebaker National Museum in 1979, and the museum conveyed it to the city in 2003. It is part of Mishawaka’s manufacturing heritage and recalls downtown history, since it was originally manufactured a few hundred feet from this site in a building later occupied by Ball-Band and ultimately demolished as part of the Uniroyal complex in 2000. Another restored Perkins Windmill has long been displayed in the center atrium at the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Library in downtown Mishawaka. The Perkins Solid Wheel wooden windmills, patented in 1869 and manufactured until after World War I, were graceful and intricately painted, with striking woodwork, a white wheel and vane, and blue-painted arms, and they could be found scattered throughout the Midwest. The founder of the Perkins windmill enterprise was Palmer C. Perkins, who was born in Bolton, New York, learned blacksmithing and ax making, moved to Mishawaka, Indiana, patented the Perkins windmill in 1869, and in 1873 formed a stock company with his brother called the Perkins Windmill and Ax Company, which continued producing windmills until about 1925.