Warder Park

Infobox park
park=Warder Park

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image size=300px
caption=Warder Park's Thomas Jefferson Statue.
type=Municipal
location=Jeffersonville, Indiana
coordinates=N 38° 16.502 W 085° 44.530
size=
opened=1881
operator=Jeff Parks Department
annual visitors=
status=Open all year

Warder Park is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana on Court Avenue. This park has been a part of the community since the mid-1800s, when it had a bakery to produce hardtack to Union soldiers during the American Civil War [ [http://www.waymarking.com/wm/details.aspx?f=1&guid=98005a69-5415-4fec-aa9a-2d7219f5ac92 Carnegie Library, Jeffersonville, Indiana (USA) - Carnegie Library Buildings on Waymarking.com ] ] . The park wasn't established officially until the year 1881 and is named after then Mayor Luther Warder. ["An Informal History of Clark County", Gerald Haffner, Ph.D. p.109] Warder had wanted the site for a new city hall, but the city council chose a site between Spring and Pearl on the north side of Market Street for the city hall, and named the park after Warder as a gesture of goodwill. [Kramer, Carl. "This Place We Call Home" (Indiana University Press, 2007) p.240)] A Carnegie Library was built in 1903.

ummer concerts

The gazebo located in the middle of the parks field holds concerts during the summer. The local news paper The Evening News usually posts the dates and times of the shows. [ [http://www.jeffparks.org/index.html Jeffersonville Parks and Recreation ] ]

Thomas Jefferson statue and renovation

The statue was purchased by the mayor administration through private donors. The Tom Galligan administration also worked on the renovation of Warder Park in 2001 and 2002. [ [http://www.galligangetsitdone.com/accomplishments.html www.galligangetsitdone.com ] ]

Carnegie library

The Carnegie Library was one of the early Carnegie libraries funded in Indiana by Andrew Carnegie, to the tune of $15,000. The Neo-Classical architecture was done by Arthur Loomis, a nationally respected architect in the firm of Clarke & Loomis Architecture, with the cornerstone being set on September 19, 1903. [Haffner p.111] Loomis was a native of Jeffersonville. The building once held classes for Indiana University Southeast. The Carnegie Library is the central focus point in Warder Park and now contains the Remnant Trust of Rare Books and Documents.

The building will eventually hold an extensive titles including:

* A 19th-century edition of "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass"
* A 560-year-old page of a Gutenberg Bible
* A 1350 copy of the Magna Carta
* A copy of the first British Edition of Lewis and Clark's "Travels to the Source of the Missouri River."

The Carnegie Library opened Oct 25, 2006 after a 4 million dollar renovation for the Remnant Trust and also included a bas-relief sculpture, titled “The Timeline of Liberty” was also unveiled. The sculpture includes 56 figures associated with promoting a philosophy of liberty and human dignity.

ee also

Old Jeffersonville Historic District

References