The Gift Parks: Coquillard, Studebaker and Kaley

1889–1906

Lead: The system's first growth spurt was a harvest of gifts, and its most instructive gift is the one that mostly got away. Alexis Coquillard, who "inherited the enterprise and public spirit, as he did the name, of his distinguished uncle, the founder of the city," gave Howard Park its four lots in November 1889 and offered the city something far larger: "a fine tract of ground, of nearly one hundred acres, on the east side of the corporation," for a new park. "He went so far as to lay out this park, plant trees and grade boulevards, walks and drives. In Coquillard Park, the city of South Bend seemed about to have one of the finest parks in the west." Then, in Howard's words: "Unhappily, Mr. Coquillard, in the midst of his laudable enterprise, and in what should seem to be the prime of his active and useful life, died on February 25, 1890.

With his death the life seemed to leave the noble project which he so fondly cherished. It was not until 1906 that all controversies as to this gift were settled, and the city accepted, in compromise of all its claims, a tract of ten acres, taken out of the grounds in dispute, for which the name of Coquillard Park has been retained." Beyer's 1906 report enters the settlement in the year's accounts — "Coquillard park, comprising ten acres, secured by the city in the settlement of the old Coquillard park litigation. This ground is in the northeastern part of the city on East Campau street. It lies directly east of the Perley school and is a very desirable site for a public park" — and records the work done on it: trees and shrubs planted, the whole park seeded, "laid out with drives and walks." The department's modern park page dates Coquillard's incorporation into the park system to 1906 and calls it one of the city's oldest neighborhood parks; the 2021 inventory lists it at 12.84 acres on Chalfant Street, the ten acres of the compromise grown by nearly three in the measuring or the keeping.

Two more gift parks stand beside Coquillard in Howard's telling. "The Studebaker Park, in the southeast part of the city, named in honor of Henry Studebaker, and the Kaley Park, in the southwest part, are among the largest and most valuable of our recent acquisitions. These fine breathing places are gifts to the city by public spirited donors whose names they bear." Kaley Park's 1906 is documented in Beyer's works list: the city bought an addition of about three acres, "a great improvement to the park as it is now entirely surrounded by streets," and "Kaley Park was thoroughly cleared of leaves and underbrush, twenty-four park benches were stationed in this park which were appreciated by the many people that sought rest and shade in this beautiful piece of woodland." The park was alive in print a decade later — the Kaley Civic Club held its first annual picnic there in August 1915, with a band concert afternoon and evening, and the 1921 Polk directory's public-parks list locates it at Bertrand Street and North Meade. Neither Studebaker Park nor Kaley Park appears under its name in the department's 2021 inventory of the system; what became of the two grounds is not in the record reached for this history, and the gap is printed rather than filled. The three gifts together, with the fairgrounds, made 1906 the system's first great year: "The year 1906 was marked by numerous park extensions in South Bend. The city acquired in the past year approximately seventy-eight acres of park property," Beyer summed up — ten at Coquillard, about sixty at the fairgrounds, three at Kaley, four at Leeper — the accounting of a system assembling itself out of other people's generosity and the county's surplus ground.

Sources:

1. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907–1908), read first-hand (the Coquillard offer, layout and death; the 1906 compromise of ten acres; Studebaker Park and Kaley Park as named gifts "among the largest and most valuable of our recent acquisitions"), including Herman H. Beyer's report for 1906 printed there (the seventy-eight acres and their distribution; the Kaley addition and benches; the Coquillard planting).
2. South Bend Venues Parks & Arts, Coquillard Park place page (incorporated into the park system in 1906; one of the city's oldest neighborhood parks).
3. Polk's South Bend city directory, 1921, public parks list (Kaley Park, Bertrand at North Meade), as reproduced in the directory's Part 4.
4. South Bend News-Times, 19 August 1915 (the Kaley Civic Club's first annual picnic at Kaley Park) and 16 July 1915 (donations to the Kaley park playground grounds), Hoosier State Chronicles.
5. City of South Bend Venues Parks & Arts, Master Plan Update 2021–2025, inventory Table A (Coquillard Park, 12.84 acres; no Studebaker Park or Kaley Park listed).