Merrifield Park

1905 GROUND — PRESENT

The east side's great park stands on the city's great annexation: The ground at 1000 East Mishawaka Avenue came into Mishawaka with the annexation of January 1905 — the "Great Annexation" of 1,353 acres, its boundaries confirmed by the Indiana Supreme Court by 1908 — among the annexed lands, in Susanna Ernst's account carried in the city's history, "that would later become Merrifield Park, Mishawaka High School, Fairview Cemetery, and parts of the West End." The park's formal founding date and the source of its name are not established in the sources — the name is the name of the pioneer teacher and historian George Merrifield, whose 1859 newspaper series first wrote this town's history, but no document reached ties the park's naming to him, and the inference is not printed as fact. What is documented is the park in use and growing: at its far north end the National Youth Administration built Castle Manor in 1941, a lodge intended first for girls' and women's organizations and rented for gatherings ever since; the park hosted the Founder's Day celebration of the sesquicentennial on 16 July 1983; and across the avenue from its ground stands Shiojiri Niwa, the sister-city garden carried in the next entry.

The park's modern plant is Mayor Margaret Prickett's work. In 1968, under her administration, the city opened at Merrifield a recreation complex of an Olympic-size swimming pool, a diving tower and an ice-skating rink — built, in De Kever's account, against the "there's nothing to do here" drift she feared was sending the city's young people elsewhere. The complex still operates — the city's 2022 activity guide lists the Merrifield Complex pool and ice rink side by side, and the present parks page keeps the Olympic-size pool among the park's features with its baseball diamonds, football and soccer field and playground. The pool's modern course has one documented interruption: after a large juvenile fight at the pool in June 2022 it closed briefly and reopened under a season-pass-only admission policy with added security and cameras, the reopening announced by Parks Superintendent Phil Blasko. The park's name also travels: the fishing record of the present river lists "Prickett Marina Park" among the Riverwalk reach's access points — the mayor's name on the water, at the strength of that listing.

Sources:

1. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — the Great Annexation of 1905 and the Merrifield ground; Castle Manor's NYA construction in 1941 and its first purpose; the 1968 pool and rink complex under Mayor Prickett and her stated reason; the 1983 Founder's Day in the park.
2. City of Mishawaka, 2022 Parks Activity Guide, and parks pages (November 2026) — the Merrifield Complex pool and ice rink in operation; Castle Manor's rentals; the park's present features and address.
3. South Bend Tribune via ND Insider, 21 June 2022 — the pool's brief closure and season-pass reopening, announced by Superintendent Phil Blasko.