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NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION STAFF REPORT PROPERTY — North Liberty Park 309 North Jefferson Street North Liberty, Indiana OWNER— Town of North Liberty STANDARDS The nomination proposes to list this resource in the New Deal Work Relief Projects Lt Saint Joseph County, Indiana Multiple Property Listing as a property "associated with New Deal work projects related to parks and recreation (1933-1942)." The nomination also proposes placement of this resource under the above thematic listing based on National Register Criteria A: Event and C: Design/Construction. Under these criteria, a property retains significance through its "association with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history," and its "[embodiment of] the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction." The New Deal Work Relief Projects in St. Joseph County, Indiana Multiple Property Listing Registration Requirements for New Deal resources related to parks and recreation further guides the review of the North Liberty Park. The Registration Requirements note that "besides possessing significance, to be listed in the National Register [this resource] must meet criteria based on the seven aspects of integrity — location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, association, feeling — as described in NPS Bulletin 15, How to A_n_nly_ the National Register Criteria for Evaluation." RECOMMENDATION The resource meets criterion A; it is associated with one of the many New Deal Programs, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the development of public recreation facilities in the 1930s. It meets criterion C as a collection of buildings, structures, and objects designed and constructed by the WPA for recreation purposes. The collection illustrates the wide range of features the WPA built within a single park with local material — stairways and walls, flowerbeds and benches, fisheries and wading pools, overflow water conduits, and bathhouses and bandstands. The property as a whole does "[represent] a significant and distinguishable entity." Per the Registration Requirements for park related resources, the North Liberty Park is in its original location on Potato Creek and original park setting. The design, materials, and workmanship of the collection of buildings, structures, and objects are all characteristic of those produced by the New Deal Work Relief Programs in the late 1930s, specifically those related to parks and recreation. The park has retained much of the feeling of a 1930s park, despite more recent additions, as well as its association to the WPA and the New Deal. The park does meet these requirements for integrity and significance. HPC staff favorably recommends the nomination of North Liberty Park to the National Register of Historic Places under the New Deal Work Relief Projects in St. Joseph County Multiple Property Listing. Staff also recommends that the Commission send a favorable recommendation to the North Liberty Town Council, the County Commissioners, and the State Historic Preservation Office.