A curious feature of the Concert Grove was the pair of granite drinking fountains placed at either end of the lakeside concourse. Their design dates from 1872 and was unlike the carved stonework throughout the Concert Grove though they clearly relate to the decorative buttresses on the Nethermead Arches which Calvert Vaux had designed with Edward C. Miller in 1867. Like the rest of the Concert Grove stonework, these were also carved by Robert Ellin & Co. and completed in 1874.
The design of the fountains was basically a large basin with four smaller, round basins which were supported on short columns. Centered over the basin were four circular piers with triangular salients forming the shape of a barbed quatrefoil. Conical caps were set on turned leafs forming a band around the neck of fountains. A metal fitting with a simple dentil pattern was attached around the base and was also moulded to fit into a channel as well as the four, small round pools. For drinking the water, simple ladles were provide.
These fountains were quite different from those which Calvert Vaux had designed in 1870 for trolley shelters at two of the park entrances. For one of those shelters, his fountain combined Indo-Islamic and Moorish patterns somewhat similar to those found on the unbuilt tower designed with Bassett Jones and intended for Lookout Hill (see Part 2b). While the fountains at the trolley shelters principally relied on surface decoration, the fountains at the Concert Grove were much larger and designed with simpler, bolder forms. It is unknown whether Thomas Wisedell was involved in the design of the fountains at the Concert Grove, though this sense of geometric simplicity was a hallmark of Robert Jewell Withers and can be found in his churches designed in the 1860’s.
Probably demolished around 1904 when the entrances to Prospect Park were redesigned.
The fountains stayed in place until 1960 when the lakefront along the Concert Grove was demolished to erect the Wollman Skating Rink. At that time, all of the railings, stonework and fountains were bulldozed into the lake to create infill where they lay buried until 2012. That year, The park began work on a new skating rink called the LeFrak Center to replace the Wollman Rink which allowed for the restoration of the lakeside at the Concert Grove. After the removable of the Wollman Rink, the original railings, stonework and fountains were recovered when the lake was dredged the lake to rebuild the lakefront. From what was found, the park was able to closely replicate most of the details thought to be lost in 1960. What was most surprising, however, is that one of the drinking fountains was recovered (and parts of the second), though the metal fitting and granite columns at the base were still missing (based on old photos, the missing columns appear to be quite similar to those found on other stonework at the Concert Grove). Currently, there are no firm plans of what to do with the fountain, though it currently resides on the west side of the LeFrak Center and about 100 feet from where one of the fountains originally stood.
Carved detail of the second fountain showing single block of granite carved into the shape of a barbed quatrefoil.
Further Reading:
- Annual Reports of the Brooklyn Park Commissioners. 1861-1873 (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1873).
- Report of the Brooklyn Park Commissioners from January 1874 to December 31, 1879 (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1880).
- Kowsky, Francis R., Country, Park & City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
- The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Volume IV: The Years of Olmsted, Vaux & Company 1865-1874 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
The Architecture of Thomas Wisedell 