National Register of Historic Places
Roberts Park
Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana
The record
- Listed
- January 15, 2014
- Type
- Historic district
- Address
- Park Rd. & 30th St., Connersville
- County
- Fayette
- State
- Indiana
- Contributing resources
- 15 buildings, 7 structures, 26 objects
- Coordinates
- 39.67169, -85.12445
- Reference number
- 13001074
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
The outline is the area recorded for this listing in National Park Service map data, drawn approximately.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUSGS Historical Topographic Map Collection
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
Roberts Park is a historic district in Connersville, Fayette County, at Park Rd. and 30th St. James E. Roberts donated the 80-acre tract in 1902, and the city council voted unanimously that year to establish it as a public park. Its buildings mix Classical Revival, Prairie School and Parks Rustic styles.
Why it's listed
It was listed in the National Register in 2014 under criteria A and C, with local-level significance in architecture, social history and entertainment and recreation. Its period of significance runs from 1902, when Connersville established the park, to 1961.
Physical character
The district includes the Pavilion, the Administration Building, the Amphitheater and grandstand, a group of horse barns, and the Roberts Park Pool, linked by stone pillars, an entrance arch and park drives. Walls are brick, stone, concrete block and wood, under roofs of asphalt shingle and corrugated sheet metal. The WPA gave the Pavilion and horse barns new roofs in 1935, and a 2009 restoration added another roof, vinyl trim and concrete entrance ramps.
Historical context
The site began as a county fairground; the Fayette County agricultural society organized in 1851, and A.J. Claypool bought 26 acres for it in 1865. The Fayette County Free Fair Association formed in 1903 and held the first Fayette County Free Fair at the park. The WPA built the park pool in 1936, one of its recreational projects there from 1935 to 1940.