BLOOMINGTON - The history of G.J. Mecherle Memorial Park (commonly known as State Farm Park) on Bloomington's south side is at least 75 years older than the insurance giant itself.
Before State Farm purchased the lake and surrounding property in 1948, the park was home to myriad activities, including swimming and ice skating, family reunions, chautauquas, fraternal society gatherings, circuses, war veteran "encampments," Wild West shows, church revivals, Jazz Age dances, and even moviemaking.
It all started with Stephen Houghton, who arrived in Bloomington in the mid-1840s and eventually purchased property south of town. On this land (which then was far outside the city limits), Houghton dredged a manmade lake, and sometime afterward opened the park-like grounds to visitors.
"A grove of twenty acres and a lake of pure water covering three and a half acres," announced a July 1889 advertisement for Houghton's Lake. "The grounds are free for gatherings of all kinds. A large number of rowing boats - first class. A bath house and bathing suits for ladies and gentlemen."
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For a city without a natural body of water (Miller Park's own manmade lake was built after the turn of the century), such an idyllic spot less than two miles from the county courthouse proved immensely popular. "There are picnic parties and reunions out there almost every day," reported the July 24, 1890, Pantagraph.
In 1902, the Bloomington & Normal Railway Co. extended streetcar service to the park grounds, improving access in an age before automobiles. By the next year, Houghton's Lake was playing host to an ambitious summer theater schedule. The park also served as the site for the annual Bloomington Chautauqua, a series of lectures, musical performances and other educative programming lasting upwards of two weeks each summer.
Families could attend one or more days, and even camp on the grounds. The July 21-31, 1904, schedule included: temperance lecturers; cartoonist-humorist Ross Crane; the Cleveland Ladies' Orchestra; the African-American Dixie Jubilee Singers; a dramatic staging of Longfellow's Hiawatha; and much more.
In 1905, "local amusement magnate" Fred Wolkau Jr., who managed both the old Coliseum and the Grand Opera House, purchased the Houghton site for $30,000. A year later, Wolkau opened a "monster pavilion" at what was now simply called Lake Park. At 76-by-220 feet, the pavilion and surrounding promenade, supported by 200 cement-brick piers, was spacious enough to accommodate several thousand visitors. At night, the structure was lit with 2,000 incandescent bulbs, and with moonlight shimmering off the lake, the park undoubtedly cast a romantic spell over its visitors.
In the 1920s, local bandleader George C. Goforth and McLean County farmer Ernest B. Bonney purchased the rights to manage the pavilion and other facilities (though the property remained Wolkau's), and the two newcomers renamed the park Bon-Go, a creative merging of their surnames.
Disaster struck the early morning of March 5, 1932, when the dance pavilion and two adjacent buildings burned to the ground. "From across the lake the fire became one of the most impressive spectacles seen in many years," reported The Pantagraph. Over the next three days, two other buildings in Bloomington, Jefferson School and Holy Trinity Catholic Church, were lost to equally mysterious fires.
Not long afterward, management changed hands and the place became known as Shalain Park and later still Circus Club Park. In 1946, Peoria movie producer C.L. Venard purchased the lake and grounds from the Wolkau estate. Venard's outfit made "rural motion pictures and slide films" on topics such as soil conservation and modern farming methods, which were then shown by agricultural colleges and other institutions.
Two years later, State Farm purchased the 33-acre site from the Corn Belt documentarian. Officially opened May 29, 1949, the private park (used by company employees and their families) was first called Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka (or Chief White Hawk), a name given to State Farm founder G.J. Mecherle by Winnebago Indians. Mecherle passed away in 1951 and the park was renamed in his honor.
In 1988, State Farm nearly doubled the size of the grounds, and today the sprawling 88.5-acre facility would be one of the largest public parks in the Twin Cities.
