Willard Park is a public park in downtown Cleveland, in the U.S. state of Ohio. The park sits at the northwest corner of East 9th Street and Lakeside Avenue, adjacent to Cleveland City Hall, and is within the boundaries of the Cleveland Mall historic district. It is the location of the public sculpture Free Stamp, and is the home of the original Cleveland Fire Fighters Memorial.''Free Stamp''The Free Stamp is an outdoor sculpture located in Willard Park. Created by Claes Oldenburg and his wife Coosje van Bruggen, it has been called the "world's largest rubber stamp". The dimensions of the sculpture are 28ft by 26ft by 49ft. The sculpture depicts a rubber stamp with the word "FREE" in its stamping area.The work was commissioned by Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) in 1982 for display at its soon-to-be-constructed headquarters building on Public Square, which became the BP Tower. The piece was originally designed to stand upright, with the lettering of the stamp hidden from view on its "stamp pad". According to one of the executives working with Oldenburg, the message on the stamp was intended as a reference to the Civil War-era Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, located across the street. In an interview with WKYC-TV at the sculpture's 1991 dedication, Oldenburg said the stamp's message, "Free," referred to the emancipation of American slaves during and after the Civil War.
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