Barber Park

If you were a personal friend of Mr. Barber you were permitted to drive to the Mansion through the Main Gates of the Anna Dean Farm at Robinson and Fifth Street. Here we see the Anna and Dean gate posts and the Main Gate House to the left. What is so unusual about this view is that we see the Gate House has its stripped awnings in place for the summer.

Entering the Barber Park you would first pass the Main Gate House, sometimes called the Lodge House. Again if you look closely you can see the red stripped awnings on the Main Gate House although they are retracted in this view.

The 40 acre Barber Park acted as a buffer between Fifth Street and the Mansion. After entering the North gates next to the Main Gate House you drove up the winding road through the woods Mr. Barber had planted after the Mansion was built. In this area were the deer that grazed on the Anna Dean Farm, and so this area was often called the Deer Park by the tourists.

Here we see various views of the Barber Park as you drove up the curving driveway that led from the Main Gate House to the Mansion. This beautiful woods had been a corn field just a few short years before these photos were taken. In order to enhance the area O. C. Barber had large trees transplanted into the area so that the woods appeared like it had always been there.

Here we have a view of the Lilly Pond as Barber Drive gently curves past it up through Barber Park The Lilly Pond although man made, was created in such a way as to seem to be a natural lake in the woods.

Around the peripheral of the Barber Park, there was a Bridal Trail for horseback riding. Here we see Mr. and Mrs. Barber saddled up for a ride around the Barber Park on their horses, with the horses standing on Bridal Trail in the woods near the Mansion.

Another view of the Bridal Trail in the Barber Park. Created exclusively for horse back riding the Bridal Trail wove through the Barber Park so that Mr. Barber's visitors on horseback could enjoy a natural woodland setting while out for a ride.