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1905–1906, and the ground today
Lead: The zoo stands in Potawatomi Park, on the east side of the city in the River Park neighborhood, between the St. Joseph River and the Grand Trunk railroad, at 500 South Greenlawn Avenue. The zoo occupies twenty-three acres of the park. The Parks Department's own chronological history dates Potawatomi Park's establishment to 1905. The ground itself came to the city in pieces: as the Farms and Crops history in this record tells in full, the St. Joseph County Agricultural Society surrendered its county fairgrounds to the city, and on 3 April 1906 those forty acres became the City of South Bend's public park — Potawatomi Park. The two dates stand side by side in the city's own record — a park established in 1905, its fairgrounds ground secured in 1906 — and are printed here as they stand. The park took its name from the Potawatomi people whose homeland this valley was, a history told in the Before the City account in this record; the zoo that later rose in the park took the park's name. Every animal the zoo has ever kept at this site has lived on this ground: the deer of 1912 and 1921, the buffalo yard of 1917, the WPA's cat house, and the giraffe barn and big-cat works of the present decade are all chapters on the same forty acres beside the river.
Sources:
- South Bend Parks & Recreation Department, chronological history of the parks (park established 1905), as published in the department's park master plan and city releases.
- Farms & Crops leg of this record (the Agricultural Society's surrender of the fairgrounds, 3 April 1906), from the county record.
- Potawatomi Zoo, published descriptions of the zoo's site and acreage (potawatomizoo.org).