Your Moment of Zoo… During the last quarter of the 19th century, when Kalamazoo was called “the most elegant town in the Midwest,” it had three men’s clubs: the Kalamazoo, the Academy, and the Cosmopolitan. On February 22, 1904, the three clubs merged and because they immediately purchased the former Nathaniel Balch Home on the corner of Rose and South streets facing Bronson Park, they named their new organization the Park Club.