Kalamazoo’s first Chautauqua assembly was held at Oakwook Park during July 1907, and featured a week of performances and lectures by the likes of William Jennings Bryan, Senator William “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Shakesperian actor Frederick Warde, and others. The massive canvas auditorium tent was located in what was then an open field along the northern edge of the park, about where Broadway Avenue and Lorraine meet today. Chatauqua was held a second time at Oakwood Park in 1909.