Developmental History

Starting with place names

Names often refer to natural features, geographical points, cultural institutions, or some combination. Burr Oak Street refers both to the tree as well as an early nickname for the settlement.  The street name is a reminder of the historic canopy that once spread far beyond the small cemetery and park. Westnedge Avenue was first named "College Street" during the earliest era of Kalamazoo College. Then it became an extension of "West Street," the road that once marked the settlement's western boundary. Jail Street, one block east, referred to an institution at the intersection of that street and Academy Street until 1845, when officials renamed it Park street for Bronson Park.[1]

Names embody power and naming reflects authority. Ten counties in southern Michigan—Barry County, Berrien County, Branch County, Calhoun County, Cass County, Eaton County, Ingham County, Jackson County, Livingston County, and Van Buren County—are the so-called cabinet counties. Their names reflect the Michigan Territorial legislature’s decision to honor and, in turn, curry favor within President Andrew Jackson's administration. At the local level, streets like Wheaton Avenue and Newell Place draw on the vanities of neighborhood developers. In 1920, the American Legion pressured the city council to rename West Street in honor of Col. Joseph Westnedge and Dr. Richard Westnedge who died in service of the country. The memorial had the benefit of retaining a gesture to the street's historic name. [2]

What is South Westnedge Park in 2024 has gone by many names. In the 1830s and 40s, it had no official name at all. If it was called anything it was a utilitarian term such as the burying ground or the cemetery. After the creation of Prairie Grove and Mountain Home cemeteries in the 1840s, this space became known as the "old cemetery" or "old burying ground." It may not have had the name "West Street Cemetery" or "South West Street Cemetery" until years after the last burial. Neighbors suggested renaming it South Park and, by the 1890s, it was called South West Street Park until the name of the street changed in the twentieth century. It wasn't until the mid-twentieth century that the term "Pioneer Cemetery" emerged. In the late twentieth century, the Vine Neighborhood Association pushed locals to remember the space as Pioneer Park. [3]

What's in a name?

Renaming comes through official and unofficial channels. As of 2024, "South Westnedge Park" is sometimes shortened to "Westnedge Park," perhaps to differentiate this space from another park by the same name on the same road in Portage. When discussing this place with Rebecca Rupp, a historian with the Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan, she referred to the place not a pioneer cemetery but a "settler cemetery.” This name, in referencing the history of settler colonialism, is also an appropriate term. [4]

In 2023, students in HIST 3104 Introduction to Public History discussed the merits of past and present names. Students elected to refer descriptively to the space as "Kalamazoo's first cemetery" as a placeholder that is not without its own flaws. The class expressed hesitation about naming the space in general and desired to open dialogue about names rather than insist on one of the many options. Is it worth renaming the place once again?

Periodizing the Cemetery Park

This section is divided into three sections: the cemetery, the park, and the pioneer park corresponding to three major eras of this place's history since its founding. The cemetery period (1833-1885) covers the rise and slow decline of the "old cemetery." The park period covers the years of forgetting and remembering in South West Street Park and South Westnedge Park through the placing of an historical marker in 1960. The final period, the pioneer park era, refers to the space's use after the historical marker amid the rise of the Vine Neighborhood Association. This final period of history is the "living" era right up to the present.

Notes

[1]. Ryan Gage, “Kalamazoo Street Names: Their Origins and History,” Kalamazoo Public Library, July 2022, last updated 13 November 2024; “How They Were Named: Brief History of Some of Kalamazoo’s Streets,” Kalamazoo Gazette, December 7, 1902.

[2]. On the “cabinet counties,” see Walter Romig, Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986); “Name West St. after Col. Joe,” Kalamazoo Gazette, January 13, 1920. Atlas of Kalamazoo County, Michigan (F. W. Beers & Co, 1873), plat 6.

[3]. Robert L. Brewer, Kalamazoo’s First Cemetery, 1833-1862 (Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society, 1987), 2; “Vine’s Revitalizations Plan Park Perk-Up,” Kalamazoo Gazette, March 10, 1989. For contemporary variance, compare “South Westnedge Park,” Kzoo Parks, https://www.kzooparks.org/Parks-Facilities/South-Westnedge-Park; “Westnedge Park,” Google Maps, accessed November 24, 2024, https://maps.app.goo.gl/KmJdxsQGywppzrLUA.

[4]. “South Westnedge Park,” Google Maps, accessed November 24, 2024, https://maps.app.goo.gl/v4ahX2TW9ZsaxDWK9.