About Woodburn Indiana

City of Woodburn, Indiana

Welcome to the City of Woodburn, Indiana. This site has a few objectives: first, we would like to offer you solutions to the most requested information that we typically encounter here in City Hall and make it readily accessible to you on the internet for you to navigate in your own timing. Secondly, we hope to streamline information that we would like to send out to our residents. For example, if there would be a weather emergency or some kind of City-wide event that we would want to communicate information about quickly to the masses, we would rely on our site to be the primary method to make that happen. Enjoy your time here and thanks again for making Woodburn a great place to live and work!

Woodburn History

In 1865 Joseph Edgerton and Joseph Smith platted the town of Woodburn, or Phelps Station as it was called at that time.  The two men chose this area due to the abundant timber, fertile ground, and nearby river.  After two large, accidental fires in the area Joseph Edgerton sent his son Edward Edgerton to Woodburn to sell off large tracts of land for farming.
This area was first known as Phelps Station due to the train depot.  There were five families and a Post Office.  In September 1865 the town was again platted with the name Woodburn due to the enormous wood burnings to clear the land. In 1895 a group of local men decided to incorporate the town into Shirley City in honor of Senator Robert B Shirley.
Once again in 1956 a special meeting was called where the decision was made to return the name to Woodburn and officially become the smallest 5th class city in Indiana.  The hard working pioneers who migrated to this area are to be commended for clearing the land for cultivation and implementing the drainage system.  This cleared the way for commerce in the city.
The Stucky brothers started their business in Woodburn selling farm implements and repair.  The grain elevator and train station were the leading businesses in the early days.  Soon the small city became self-contained with everything from a bank, to grocery stores, drug store, furniture, doctors, blacksmith, restaurants, taverns, stockyard, hotel, butcher shop, brick and tile mill, automobiles, schools and churches.
Due to limited roads and abundant local business, community members did not have to travel outside of Woodburn for their basic needs.

In the event that you need to seek shelter from a storm:

Proceed to either

• Christ Lutheran Church at 4412 Park Street (door adjacent to parking lot)
• American Legion at 22115 Main Street

The City of Woodburn has elections every four years to decide who will serve their community as a public servant. At that time, all five Council positions, the Mayor’s position, and the Clerk-Treasurer’s position are decided by public vote and they take office shortly thereafter, all at the same time. One item of mention that you might find interesting: did you know that the Mayor, the Clerk-Treasurer, and the Council work together but none of them are direct supervisors of the others? This structure demands that we all work together for the common good, with mutual respect and decency to accomplish the promising future of this City.

The following image shows the breakdown of our four districts within the City, and regardless of which district you live within, you have a neighbor Councilmember that also lives in your district. In addition to the four district Councilmembers, there is an At Large Councilmember. That Councilmember can come from anywhere within the City. Below is information about your Councilmembers and which districts they reside within:

The City of Woodburn is a New Allen Alliance Community.