University Park

University Park is the oldest portion of the Indiana War Memorial Plaza, once the planned site of a university in 1821. With the plan never coming to fruition, the southwest corner of the park became home to the Marion County Seminary, the city's first high school and several churches. The building was torn down in 1860 so the park could be a drilling ground for the Union troops. Following the war, the area was converted into a park. The centerpiece of the park is the Depew Fountain, dedicated to a physician from Indianapolis named Dr. Richard Johnson Depew. Designer Karl Bitter died before the fountain's completion. Alexander Stirling Calder completed Bitter's work.