West Park Bandshell in Ann Arbor leaves lasting legacy

MELISSA CARPENTER: "I was asked to join the Ann Arbor Civic Band in the early 2000s and to help the band director, Charlotte Owen, who was pretty famous. She was the first female band director of the United States Women's Marine Band. And to be able to play under her was quite an honor. This site is very special to me because it's just so historic. And it's such a wonderful place to play."

STOCKWELL: "What instrument did you play?"

MELISSA CARPENTER: "I’m a clarinetist. So, it was a beautiful place to play. And when the audience was able to be up close. It was nice to have all the kids to run and dance and jump in front of the stage when we were playing for them."

STOCKWELL: "You're up there playing, and what do you see when you look out?"

MELISSA CARPENTER: "Well, the sun. The way the sun sets across the park, you have to wear sunglasses. It's very bright. The giant oak trees are something that's very special to the site. We used to have some big willows, but they got sick and had to be torn out. My favorite part was always the Teddy Bears Picnic concert, where we would play the Teddy Bears Picnic, and I would have all the children march through the park. And at the end of the march, they would get a package of animal crackers, and they would be able to sit and listen to the rest of the concert eating their animal crackers."

"I also swept the stage every concert and set up all the chairs, so that we were ready to go for our evening concert. The Kiwanis donated benches to us, and we used to put out benches out here out front."

MELISSA CARPENTER: "Originally when I got here, the flag, if you look at the stage, the flag was on the right. And on any theater or any structure, the flag is supposed to be, as you look at the structure, on the left side. So, I was mentioning this to a member of the band, and the tuba player showed up one day with a drill and a new mounting bracket, and we measured how high the old one was, and we matched it on the other side, and every band concert after that, I would unfurl the flag on the correct side of the Bandshell."

STOCKWELL: "Now, he wasn't drilling during a show, was he?"

MELISSA CARPENTER: "No, no, no. We had it set up all in advance beforehand. I believe he climbed up on a little stepladder to get it done."

"Originally, families were able to park on the grass on the hillside, and our senior citizens were able to just get right out of their car and sit up on the hill with their chair or walk down here. It was very accessible in the old days."

"So, the summer of love hit Ann Arbor through the media, the mass media, and we're all going, 'Gosh, this sounds interesting!' And then there was an article, I think, about the Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. And the Jefferson Airplane hit the radio with someone to love. And The Dead, you had to dig a little deeper, so I went down to Discount Records on State Street, which was the Hub, and got their first album. I said, 'This is pretty cool!' And then the next thing you know, I'm 15, you hear that the Dead are giving a free concert at West Park. And that was kind of mind-blowing. And so, I had my mom drop me off really early. I got there way early. It was basically me and the band. That was it. Nobody else was there except, you know, the people doing the sound. And I'll never forget, Bob Weir looked over at me, and he goes, 'Hey, kid, come here.' And I went over. He said, 'Is there any water fountain around here?' And I went, 'Yeah, it's way over there, way over there.' He handed me a towel and said, 'Would you mind getting this towel wet? I want to just clean my guitar neck.' Jogging over there, jogging back. And, you know, it was just, it was awesome."

"15 years old, I’m there with a couple of friends and they start to play, and Jerry Garcia's there in his rainbow pants. And I don't think we were the first, but we had a comfortability because we got there early, and we were sort of hanging. We ended up crawling onto the stage, lying on our backs at Jerry Garcia's feet. It was just.... you know, what an experience!"

DAVE ROSSITER: "I'm in high school, Pioneer High, and I meet this young woman who's appealing, and I'm interested in dating her. And I'm a relatively shy guy, but I'm also, I've started playing music, and so, I went and picked her up for the date. And as fathers do, they look at you askance when you drive up in your dad's Mustang and take their daughter to a concert. That happened to be the concert where Terry Tate had an American flag made out of denim that he was wearing, and it started to come apart. It had not been properly sewn. And he was, I think, kind of high. And rather than try and fix this malfunction, he just basically ripped it off. So, he's stark naked on the stage. And I'm looking at this young woman that I brought along on a date, and I'm going, 'I'm never going to have another date with this person because...'"

STOCKWELL: "Did you have another date?"

DAVE ROSSITER: "No."

"I'm currently evaluating because of structural issues at the Bandshell, kind of to the public engagement to identify the actual issues, the needs, the wants of the community engagement. And we have been doing that since roughly 2001. And following a pretty significant public engagement, we made a recommendation at PAC—Parks Advisory Commission—in March, based on our findings, to recommend the demolition of the band shell due to safety, financial, and usage reasons."

"We're going to be going to the Park Advisory Commission on May 20th with the formal kind of resolution to move forward with demolishing the Bandshell. And then, that would go to City Council probably June or July for making that final decision on that. So, we'll be kind of working on a demolition aspect and what that entails. We're gearing up towards doing kind of a full comprehensive plan of West Park, so kind of zooming out away from just the band show but looking at the park as a whole. What we heard a lot in our community engagement efforts was, as Josh mentioned, the activation of the park, flexible spaces, spaces that can be used by the community in a way that kind of bring people together. And so, no matter what we did with that Bandshell would impact the park as a whole. And so now, this is our chance to really look at kind of everything, engage the community again on what their wants and needs are. So, we'll be developing what that process looks like. It's really just kind of pivoting from what we've been doing to now kind of zooming out."

STOCKWELL: "What are your thoughts as you look around here now?"

MELISSA CARPENTER: "I'm incredibly sad. I'm incredibly sad. The city deserves an outdoor performance venue. And especially since COVID, we know how important outdoor spaces are. And the fact that this structure has been allowed to fall into disrepair like this. I loved it here, and I will miss her very much. It would be a sad day if the city decides to tear her down."