Potawatomi Conservatories (Ella Morris and Muessel-Ellison Conservatories, Desert Dome)

The site began as a municipal nursery. In the 1920s the city of South Bend had Lord & Burnham, one of the leading greenhouse builders of the twentieth century, put up the Potawatomi Greenhouse: eight growing houses that raised plants for the city's parks and conservatories and for flower shows across the region. A local report of 2024 described it as the last original greenhouse still standing.

Display houses followed in the 1960s, when Ella Morris and the Muessel-Ellison Foundation gave two conservatories to the people of South Bend, completed in 1963 and 1967. The official site credits Lord & Burnham with designing and building the Muessel-Ellison Conservatory. A third structure, the desert dome, was finished in 1973.

In late 2006 budget cuts and heating costs led the city to propose closing the conservatories. They stayed open, and management passed to the Botanical Society of South Bend. Closed in 2011, the buildings underwent a renovation estimated at $1.2 million: new heating, plumbing and electrical systems, repaired walls, new windows and floors, accessible restrooms, a potting room and a mechanical room, plus a new parking lot, sidewalk and signage. They reopened in May 2012.

The historic growing range has a less certain future. In May 2024 the city's proposed River Park neighbourhood plan would have replaced it with walking paths and a parking lot, prompting a petition against its demolition.

Instead of one large palm house, the site is a cluster of glass buildings of different dates along Mishawaka Avenue. The 1920s Potawatomi Greenhouse was originally laid out as eight growing houses. The Ella Morris Conservatory pairs a meeting room with a large growing room, where winding paths lead to a fountain. The Muessel-Ellison Conservatory, designed and built by Lord & Burnham, has a large open space suited to events and a quieter lower level with a small waterfall. The 1973 desert dome is organised around a circular path that rings a sunken bed of arid-land plants.

The 2011–2012 renovation was mainly about making the buildings sound and cheaper to run: renewed heating, plumbing and electrical systems, new windows and floors, and repaired and repainted walls. The restrooms, potting room and mechanical room built at that time added 1,600 square feet, about 150 m², to the facilities.

Each house has its own climate and theme. The Ella Morris Conservatory is devoted to tropical and subtropical flora and flowering plants, and an older description of the site lists rubber trees, bamboo and citrus there. In the Muessel-Ellison Conservatory, bougainvillea and birds of paradise frame the small waterfall among mature tropical plants.

The desert dome evokes the Sonoran Desert with cacti, agaves and other succulents, and sources also mention a large monkey puzzle tree. The 1920s growing range still produces plants: everything offered at the spring 2024 plant sale, held to raise money for the conservatories, had been grown there, just as it once supplied seasonal flower shows and the city's parks.

The conservatories stand at 2105 Mishawaka Avenue in Potawatomi Park, which also contains the Potawatomi Zoo, so the two visits combine easily. Allow under an hour for the three houses, moving from the humid tropical rooms to the dry air of the desert dome. The Muessel-Ellison Conservatory is often booked for private events, and the Botanical Society runs plant sales and swaps, such as the May plant swap reported in 2024. A community garden and a neighbourhood library lie just next door.