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United States Department of the Interior <br />National Park Service <br />National Register of Historic Places <br />Continuation Sheet <br />Section number qL_q Page S <br />North Liberty Park <br />St. Joseph County IN <br />constructed ornamental fieldstone entrances, steps down into the <br />park, a footbridge over the creek, a bandstand atop a sturdy <br />fieldstone tool shed, and other fieldstone features. They <br />outlined the swimming pool with fieldstone and built a bath house. <br />They also built three timber picnic shelters, but all have been <br />replaced. They created a total of five fish rearing ponds --a <br />common feature in 1930s parks --in the southeast and northeast <br />corners of the park. <br />After World War II, a small veterans memorial was created near the <br />north entrance, but in the.years following, maintenance on the <br />park began to deteriorate. The fish rearing ponds, which had been <br />maintained by the local Conservation Club, were drained sometime <br />in the early 1960s, after the state government took over control <br />of that activity in fish hatcheries. A baseball diamond occupies <br />the place where the shallow ponds were at the south end of the <br />park, and on the north end, the greater space allowed for more <br />picnic tables. The original timber picnic shelters were rebuilt or <br />replaced in the 1960s. The swimming pool, its outline still <br />readily visible, was allowed to drain probably around this time as <br />well. Nevertheless, even with these changes, North Liberty Park <br />maintains a high degree of integrity with its wealth of fieldstone <br />construction that so clearly identifies it as a project of the <br />WPA. <br />North Liberty Park is eligible for the National Register under <br />Criterion A in the areas of recreation and social history because <br />it is associated with the New Deal's work programs and <br />recreational development in the 1930s. It is also eligible under <br />Criterion C because the site as a whole and its individual <br />resources are representative of the work and style of architecture <br />and park site development typical of the WPA in St. Joseph County. <br />MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL <br />(See Bibliography, New Deal Work Project Resources in St. Joseph <br />County Multiple Property Listing) <br />Archives, Walkerton Area Historical Society. <br />