A duck pond in Leeper Park: where the zoo begins

The park came first. Leeper Park is South Bend's first planned public park: the first of its ground was condemned in June 1895 for the city water works, the planned landscape is dated 1897 under city superintendent Herman Beyer, and George Kessler's parks and boulevard plan of 1911 to 1915 assigned its west end to active recreation and its center to quiet grounds and water. In that central ground sits the lagoon the city dug as a duck pond, and the zoo's whole history grows out of it. The zoo's own account: in 1902 the city dug a duck pond in Leeper Park for ducks and swans, and the year after, the pond became home to a deer, recorded as the zoo's first animal. The site's history page carries the pair 1902 and 1905 for this beginning; the article prints 1902 and names the pair as the record holds it.

The park is still a children's park. Leeper's family furniture kept renewing across the century the pond began: its playgrounds were rebuilt most recently in the present era, with a new playground opened by ribbon cutting on October 7 to 8, 2019, Mayor Pete Buttigieg cutting the ribbon alongside students from Madison Steam Academy. The full animal history of what grew from the duck pond, the deer, the buffalo of 1917 and everything after, belongs to this site's ZOO section, and the next article in this section carries it only to cross-reference size.

Sources

1. City of South Bend Historic Preservation Commission staff reports (2019), citing the Leeper Park Cultural Landscape Report: first planned public park; June 1895 condemnation for the water works; 1897 landscape under Herman Beyer; Kessler plan 1911 to 1915, west active and center passive.
2. Potawatomi Zoo, "Zoo History" (potawatomizoo.org): duck pond dug in Leeper Park 1902; deer the first animal; the site's 1902/1905 pair for the beginning.
3. Beacon Health System release, October 8, 2019: Leeper Park playground ribbon cutting October 7 to 8, 2019, with Mayor Buttigieg and Madison Steam Academy students.