The bandshell dedicated, 1928

May 28, 1928 · Battell Park

The dedication: Battell Park's bandshell — concrete, limestone, and copper, finished in 1927 after a first bandshell of 1918 — was dedicated on May 28, 1928, three days before Memorial Day, and it was dedicated as a war memorial: the commemorative plaque on its front reads, "Dedicated to those of Mishawaka, Indiana, who offered their lives in humanity's defense in the wars of the nation and in memory of those who gave their last full measure of devotion." The dedication fixed the geography of the city's remembering: the bandshell stands in the park with the Civil War Soldiers' Memorial of 1884, and Memorial Day parades have typically ended near the bandshell and the memorial ever since — the parade's modern entry, in the Current band below, runs on the ground this dedication made. The park whole — the Battell deed, the rock garden, the Kessler test — is Parks & River's; the dedication, as the ceremony that joined the city's music to its mourning in one structure, is an event, and stands here.

Sources:

1. National Register of Historic Places registration form, Battell Park Historic District (1995), as presented in the Clio entry for Battell Park — the bandshell finished 1927, dedicated May 28, 1928, the memorial plaque's text, and the Memorial Day parades ending near the bandshell and the Civil War memorial.
2. Parks & River section of this history — Battell Park whole, the 1884 Soldiers' Memorial, and the park's course.