Willard Park is a

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to r ...

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. The park sits at the northwest corner of East 9th Street and Lakeside Avenue, adjacent to

Cleveland City Hall Cleveland City Hall is the seat of government for the City of Cleveland, Ohio, and the home of Cleveland City Council and the office of the Mayor of Cleveland. It opened in 1916 and is located at 601 Lakeside Avenue in the Civic Center area of Dow ...

, and is within the boundaries of the Cleveland Mall

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from cer ...

. It is the location of the public sculpture ''Free Stamp'', and is the home of the original Cleveland Fire Fighters Memorial. Willard park is named after

Archibald Willard Archibald MacNeal Willard (August 22, 1836 – October 11, 1918) was an American painter who was born and raised in Bedford, Ohio. He was the son of Samuel Willard, the pastor of Bedford Baptist Church. Willard had an interest in art ever since ...

. A copy of Archibald's painting ''The Spirit of '76'' hangs in the Rotunda of the neighboring

''Free Stamp''

The ''Free Stamp'' is an outdoor sculpture located in Willard Park. Created by

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

and his wife

Coosje van Bruggen Coosje van Bruggen (June 6, 1942 – January 10, 2009) was a Dutch-born American sculptor, art historian, and critic.Kino, Carol. January 13, 2009 ''The New York Times''. She collaborated extensively with her husband, Claes Oldenburg. Biography ...

, it has been called the "world's largest

rubber stamp A rubber stamp is an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved or vulcanized onto a sheet of rubber. Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to rubbe ...

". The dimensions of the sculpture are by by . The sculpture depicts a rubber stamp with the word "FREE" in its stamping area. The work was commissioned by The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) in 1982 for display at its soon-to-be-constructed headquarters building on Public Square, which became the

BP America Tower 200 Public Square is a skyscraper in Cleveland, Ohio. The building, located on Public Square in Downtown Cleveland, reaches 45 stories and with of office space. It is the third-tallest building in Cleveland and fourth-tallest in the state of ...

. The piece was originally designed to stand upright, with the lettering of the stamp hidden from view on its "stamp pad". According to one of the executives working with Oldenburg, the message on the stamp was intended as a reference to the Civil War-era Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, located across the street.Quote from Nicholas Giorganni, project director for The Standard Oil headquarters building, a
World's Largest Rubber Stamp
RoadsideAmerica.com. Retrieved Dec. 5, 2009. In an interview with

WKYC-TV WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's lon ...

at the sculpture's 1991 dedication, Oldenburg said the stamp's message, "Free," referred to the emancipation of American slaves during and after the Civil War. Controlling interest in Standard Oil had previously been acquired by British Petroleum as part of the financing arrangements for construction of the Trans Alaska pipeline and oil rights to Prudhoe Bay reserves. BP executive Robert Horton took over the management of the retitled company, BP America, before the sculpture was installed. He believed that the stamp was "inappropriate" for the location, and that Oldenburg actually intended to mock British Petroleum about Sohio's loss of corporate freedom and the lack of freedom in office work. The company gave the artists permission to move the sculpture to another part of the city, but they refused. As a result, the stamp was placed in storage in a facility in

Whiting, Indiana Whiting is a city located in the Chicago Metropolitan Area in Lake County, Indiana, which was founded in 1889. The city is located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It is roughly 16 miles from the Chicago Loop and two miles from Chica ...

. Over the next several years, BP America, the artists, and the city consulted to find a new site for the sculpture. Several sites were proposed, including the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

. The artists, who wanted the sculpture to remain near Public Square, finally chose Willard Park. In 1991, BP donated the sculpture to the city of Cleveland. The stamp was modified to sit on its side, and it was dedicated in its new location on November 15, 1991. At the dedication, Oldenburg told a WKYC-TV producer that it looked as if a giant hand had picked up the sculpture from its intended location at the BP Tower and angrily hurled it several blocks, where it ended up on its side.

References

External links

Sketches and construction images
{{Cleveland Parks in Cleveland