The Lowell Area Historical Museum is offering a weekly feature to explore local history. This week, museum staff is telling us about Recreation Park, which has long been the hub of social activity in Lowell. To learn more about Lowell history, visit the museum website to explore its collection of local artifacts and records.
Perhaps the most festive time ever seen at Recreation Park was the Lowell Centennial Celebration in 1931. The celebration was staged mainly at the park. Publicity described Recreation Park as ‘one of our outstanding possessions.’ Additional bleacher seating was added. The park was alive with fundraising events before the celebration, including an amateur boxing contest. The three day Centennial Celebration began with an ox roast under the supervision of L.W. Rutherford, serving over four thousand people.
Throughout the celebration former Governor Chase S. Osborn, then Governor Wilber M. Brucker, and the Hon. Carl E. Mapes, Congressman, all made speeches from Recreation Park. The logistics alone for the arrival of Governor Brucker took a team of people to plan and execute. The Governor arrived in an airplane, landing in a field west of town that had been cleared for the landing. Lowell did not have an airport at this time. From there he was escorted by automobile right to the stage at Recreation Park for his speech.
The grand crowning of the Centennial Queen, Miss Emma Kropf, several band concerts, balloon ascension and parachute drop, baseball games, dancing, a racing matinee, and various contests were all conducted at Recreation Park. The big parade, called “the finest arranged and conducted parades ever held in Western Michigan” ended with an estimated 30,000 people all making their way to Recreation Park. Carnival rides and food vendors were all part of the celebration.
In 1934, Lowell’s Recreation Park hosted the first 4-H Fair, which turned into the Kent County Youth Fair that we know today. Much later, in 1961, Keats K. Vining explained that the West Michigan Fair had folded in the late 1920’s and Kent County 4-H clubs had no place to exhibit their livestock and other club work. Newspaper man R.J. Jeffries took him on a tour of Recreation Park. There was an empty horse barn from when horse races were run at Lowell. With assistance from the Lowell Council, Rotary Club and Board of Trade, a fair was started on a small scale and built into today’s Youth Fair.
Recreation Park as a whole continued to be used for multiple uses and was the center of social events for the village. Baseball games, picnics, and general public use continued. Harvest picnics and events included Halloween frolics with games, lunch and a costume parade. The Board of Trade worked with the common council in the project for a tourist camp at Recreation Park. This came to fruition in 1936. Later, the park even hosted archery tournaments.
Then, football and Coach Burch came to Recreation Park. Countless games have been played at Recreation Park over the years. To many, Recreation Park, football and Coach Burch are all synonyms.
The 1940’s were an exciting time for Recreation Park. Dr. S.S. Lee had left nearly $70,000 to the city stating it was, “to be used in any way the village council may see fit for the general benefit of the village; and I would suggest that a part of the same of said residue be used for the gradual improvement of Recreation Park.” The earnings from the funds paid for the building of the Foreman Building at Recreation Park. This building was used for 4-H exhibitions, stock sales, and indoor ice skating. It was named and dedicated to the memory of Ernest C. Foreman, ‘North America’s foremost poultry man’. As the park was undergoing improvements as provided in Dr. Lee’s will, it was suggested that Lowell should build a museum at Recreation Park for old relics in order to save them for posterity. In the giving spirit, C.H. Runciman donated material for an arena in the Park. It was first used for the Wild West Rodeo.
The 1960’s brought the King Memorial Pool and tennis courts. In 1964 the tennis courts, track area, baseball diamonds and football fields were all deeded to the Lowell area Schools so they could make capital improvements. The agreement contained a reversion clause and the land has since returned to the city. In 1961 and then again in 1970, the high school graduation commencement exercises were held outside at Recreation Park.
The recent past has been rough for Recreation Park. The pool closed permanently, the grandstands were destroyed in a storm, and the Lowell schools built their own sports facilities. Today the fair is working on its own new grounds and facilities, and will leave Recreation Park.
Today we look towards the future of Recreation Park. It still has every potential to once again be a gem, “one of our most prized possessions”, a center of social activity, right here on this 30 acre spot in the heart of Lowell.
All photos are from the Lowell Centennial Celebration.
Thanks to the Lowell Ledger for the series “The ABCs of Lowell History” and the feature on Recreation Park, as well as my brother Bob’s letter to the Ledger pointing out several errors in the Recreation Park article. He has always been a virtual encyclopedia of knowledge with his ability to recall an unbelievable minutia of details. The only point I would disagree with is his statement that “Lowell High’s class of 1961 was only about 70 graduates…”. I was in the Class of 1961 and as I recall, there were 83 students in our class.
Dave Thaler, LHS Class of 1961
Hi David,
Thanks so much for your comment. We also appreciated your brother’s updates and shared them with the Lowell Area Historical Museum.
Just to clarify, though, we are not affiliated with the Lowell Ledger. Lowell’s First Look is a separate news organization that was founded in 2016.
Thank you again for your note!
Maryalene
I believe there are several errors in the Recreation Park article:
1. There were several concrete tennis courts (west of the football field) long before the 1960s.) I think there were originally 2 (maybe 3) adjacent courts lined up north-south, probably built in the 1930s (maybe a federal WPA project?). They were certainly in place by 1947 when I was a 5-year-old child playing on the large (high) playground swings located just north of the courts. Probably were there when the high school began tennis as an interscholastic sport. (check old LHS “Retrospectus” yearbooks). George DeVries (LHS ’56) was state runnerup in Class B high school singles, and played on those courts. I recall end of school year class picnics from 4th grade (1952) on, held at Recreation Park by the tennus courts. We moved to Lowell in July 1945, when I was 3 years old. Your article’s error may be because the original concrete courts had deteriorated by the 1960s, and were replaced with new courts. I don’t ever remember any other concrete tennis courts anywhere in Lowell.
2. The first high school graduation held at Recreation Park was in June 1960 – not 1961. It was my Class of 1960. We had about 114 graduates, the largest graduating class up to that date. Ours was the last class to include students from Ada and Cascade — which began Forest Hills high school which began with 9th grade in fall 1957, adding a grade per year until its first Forest Hills HS graduation in June 1961. So Lowell High’s class of 1961 was only about 70 graduates, and was held in the gym/all-purpose-room of the Runciman Elementary buildibg, built in 1956 southeast of the old high school on North Monroe St.
My class of 110 graduates was simply too large for any indoor venue, without severe limits of 2 guests per graduate! So it was held outside, at Recreation Park — NOT at the football field, but on a grassy field area on the west side of the fairgrounds (also used for fair events or rodeos)
alongside of M-91 (South Hudson). The graduates and the high school band
sat on folding chairs facing west toward the highway, and the audience in temporary wooden bleachers and folding chairs facing east (facing the graduates). As I recall, that area also had elevated floodlights from its use for 4H fair and horse shows.
3. I think high school football games were always played on the fiekd at Recreation Park, never anywhere else — unless maybe where the 1936 elementary building (later called Riverside or Unity). For sure all high school games after 1945 were at the Recreation Park site later named Burch field
** Someone needs to ask the few remaining LHS students from the 1940s — Richard Bieri (LHS 1945) and wife Phyllis Bieri, residents of Schneider manor apartments, and Betty Yeiter (age 99) for memories of Recreation park AND MEMORIES OF THE BIG HIGH SCHOOL FIRE OF JANUARY 21, 1945! Soon, while they are still alive!
Hi Bob,
Thanks so much for sharing all this information and your memories. We are forwarding it on to the Lowell Area Historical Museum, who created this series.
Thank you again!
Maryalene