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NPS Foam 10-900 a OMH Approval No 1024-0018 Unked States Departinmt of the toterlor National Park Savior • National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number _8_ Page _14_ facilities were woven together by the circulation layout. The Wading Pool, the Formal Garden, and the Playfields and Courts became integral parts of the overall composition. The Garden, a reworking of the earlier Main Street axial entry into the Park from Main Street, extended the street vista into the park with parallel walks and central garden layout, utilizing forms similar to other Kessler formal gardens in Indianapolis at Garfield Park and University Park, both also designed in 1915. The Kessler plan for the park was implemented over several decades. The last improvements to the park made during the Depression: street work, retaining walls and recreation pavilion were sensitive extensions of the Kessler design. Leeper Park is South Bend's first designed public park. The Park was designed to be a community gathering place, the setting for the City's Waterworks, and to provide access to the St. Joseph River as a place for both active and passive recreation. Its local significance through its early design and implementation by Herman Beyer, is elevated to statewide prominance through the planning and design work of George Kessler. The Parks of South Bend as integrated components of an overall park and boulevard plan, represent the translation of metropolitan park planning and design principles during the late Victorian and City Beautiful eras of American landscape architecture in larger cities • such as Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City, to smaller cities of the midwest. The City of South Bend progressively commissioned George Kessler, one of the country's most distinguished park planners, develop these plans. The planning and design for Leeper Park is important to the cohesiveness of the overall plan. The collection of interrelated South Bend parks and boulevards is also an important component in the statewide inventory of Kessler designed parks which also includes multiple sites in Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne, and Terre Haute. Historic Integrity Leeper Park has maintained its historic boundaries, and its setting near the northern edge of the downtown area. It is flanked by 2 of the City's several historic residential districts, and overlooks a third on the north shore of the River. Some encroachment in setting has occurred with the expansion of Memorial Hospital, cutting off the continuity of Main Street from the Park to Downtown, and in off-site views of the Hospital's parking lots. The neighboring Madison School and the YWCA, however, remain as traditional visual and functional adjuncts for the Park. The design of Leeper Park is an amalgam of the Beyer and Kessler Plans for the site. The Drives of the Park, portions of walkway, entry steps and garden features remain in their historic location as remodelled in the Kessler era. Traces of the older carriage lanes, removed as the Kessler plan was implemented remain in the spacing of trees in the center section. The three distinct sections of the park remain and retain their historic landuses. The eastern section is primarily a passive park and garden area, providing the setting for the North pumping station and interpretive areas of the Navarre Cabin and Zeigler Performing Center. The riverbank and Island is retain their historic pastoral character. The center section of the park is centered around the Duck Pond, which coupled with the former location of formal gardens served as the Park's front yard. Coupled with the addition of a playground (which is a slight intrusion into the historic fabric of the