Playland Park: the trolley park on the river

The trolley companies built it. South Bend's amusement park began in 1880, on the standard trolley park logic of its era: a pleasure ground at the end of the line, on the St. Joseph River where Ironwood Drive and Lincolnway East meet, so that the fare to reach it paid for the ride twice. It opened under the name Springbrook Park, and one later account dates the opening 1899; the fragment prints the 1880 origin with that variant standing beside it, the way the record holds both. The grounds were a full resort in miniature: a dance hall and casino, an exhibition hall, picnic groves along the river, boat tours leaving from the park's own dock, and, by 1912, a roller coaster above the trees.

The racetrack and the rename. A racetrack joined the grounds in 1916, and in 1924 a new manager, Pete Redden, renamed the park by public contest: Springbrook became Playland Park, and the coaster took the name children would shout for the next three decades, the Jack Rabbit. Floodlights went up in the 1940s, and the park's second life was athletic: the South Bend Blue Sox of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League played their home games inside the racetrack from 1946 to 1954, and in 1952 the park hosted the only NASCAR race South Bend has ever held, before 3,700 spectators. The amusement park closed at the turn of the sixties, dated 1961 by the library's documentary account and 1960 in the Clio record, and the grounds stayed in family use for about forty more years as a lighted par-3 golf course. River Crossing student housing for IU South Bend, opened in 2008, stands on the site today.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, "Playland Park (South Bend, Indiana)": 1880 trolley park origin as Springbrook Park; river, Ironwood and Lincolnway East bounds; 1940s floodlights; 1961 amusement park closure; par-3 golf about 40 years.
2. The Clio, "Playland Park" entry: 1899 Springbrook opening variant; casino, exhibition hall and coaster by 1912; racetrack 1916; Pete Redden 1924 rename and the Jack Rabbit; Blue Sox 1946 to 1954; 1952 NASCAR race, 3,700 spectators; 1960 closure variant; River Crossing housing opened 2008.
3. St. Joseph County Public Library local history, WNIT "Playland Park" documentary notes: Springbrook to Playland arc; 1961 closure on the library's telling.