James E. Roberts Memorial Building

James E. Roberts Memorial Building. . , Col. James E. Roberts was an industrial leader and prominent citizen of Fayette County. He moved to Connersville during the Civil War era and entered the retail hardware business. In 1874 he purchased interest in a local furniture factory and for the next 24 years Mr. Roberts was a partner in the Munk and Roberts Furniture Company. In 1898 he sold the furniture factory to Rex Buggy Company and moved to Indianapolis at the turn of the century., James E. Roberts was born to Mr. and Mrs. John Roberts of Franklin County, Indiana. He was twice married; his first wife was Miss Mary Claypool from Connersville and Miss Henrietta West, of Indianapolis, was his second wife. He had no children., In 1902, James E. Roberts donated eighty acres of land to the city of COnnersville for the purpose of building a park. Though he had moved away, Mr. Roberts remembered Connersville with great affection. An engraved stone is imbedded in each of the two brick pillars at the northwest entrance of the park. One carries the name of James E. Roberts and the other has the name of his first wife, Mary C. Roberts. Mr. Roberts died in Indianapolis on May 20, 1922., The James E. Roberts Memorial Building was built in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was a federal relief program established to create jobs during the Great Depression. The program provided jobs to millions of unemployed people to carry out public works projects. Among those projects were; the James E. Roberts Memorial Building, Roberts Park Pool, the Police Building, the Amphitheater's stone wall, and various stone structures and roads throughout the park.