Green Springs Villa

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The Green Springs Villa is a public building at George Ward Park.

It was constructed in 1933 with Works Progress Administration labor as a recreation center for the park. With no programming funds from the city, it was left largely unused for a few years until the Park Board began to lease it out to concessionaires.

By the late 1940s the building had fallen prey to vandals who stripped the lighting and plumbing fixtures, removed doors and windows, and damaged the interior plaster and tile work. In October 1950 the Board put staff maintenance supervisor A. W. Beck in charge of restoring the building. Bulletproof glass from surplus B-29 bombers was installed in the windows and new plaster was installed in the interiors. The inside walls were decorated with murals of pine trees painted by park department art director Alice Schaefer with assistance from Elizabeth Noble. The outside face of the stone was freshened by sandblasting and underbrush in the vicinity cleared.