Schiller Park Through the Years

The City of Columbus purchases 23 acres of Stewart’s Grove and renames it City Park.

The original Umbrella Girl statue enhances the park as a drinking fountain until its disappearance between World War II and the 1950s. The mystery remains unsolved.

Monument to Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) is dedicated on July 4 with 10,000 in attendance.

City Council changes the name of the park from City Park to Schiller Park.

The original shelter house and recreation center are constructed and dedicated.

Schiller Park is renamed Washington Park due to anti German sentiment during World War I. Motion to remove Schiller statue not adopted.

A new caretaker’s cottage is built as part of a depression era Works Progress Administration project.

Citizens and civic leaders successfully petition City Council to reinstate the Schiller Park name.

The modern, expanded Schiller Park Community Center facility officially opened to the public. It replaced the smaller, original 1917 building to accommodate the growing neighborhood needs.

The German Village Businessman’s Association hosts Oktoberfest in Schiller Park.

Friends of Schiller Park, the first Friends group in Columbus, is chartered. The initial priorities of planting new trees and improving the playground are accomplished in short order.

Actors’ Theatre of Columbus launches with a single performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The troupe performs on temporary staging until the amphitheater is built in 1994.

Schiller Park Masterplan by Richard Trott and Partners Architects is published.

Friends of Schiller Park, in collaboration with the German Village Society, launch a capital campaign that provides nearly $500,000 for masterplan implementation.

The Huntington Garden and the Schiller Promenade are dedicated.

A reimagined Umbrella Girl statue sculpted and contributed by Joan Wobst and a nearby hosta garden in memory of Grace Highfield are dedicated.

Schiller Park commemorates the city’s Bicentennial with Ode to Joy program and enhancements to the Schiller Monument (landscaping, lighting, signs). In the same year, President Barack Obama campaigns in Schiller Park.

Friends of Schiller Park celebrate the park’s Sesquicentennial with the publication of Schiller Park Across Time.

In 2019, the park hosted an artist exhibition by renowned Polish artist Jerzy Kędziora. Due to Covid-19, the sculptures remained in the park longer than anticipated and the neighborhood grew attached. In 2022, FOSP raised money to permanently install five sculptures in the park.