Lady of The Fountain

The Lady of the Fountain

By Sara Crist
From the Montgomery Advertiser,
July 14,1940.

This is a story about a lady with a past. A lady who is seen out in public at all hours. She is known by thousands of people. And talked about too - though few who discuss her know enough of her story really to appreciate her virtues as they should. For all her widespread reputation, this lady is a thoroughbred. Her origin is of the best and though she is getting old now, she is still beautiful, poised, graceful. She has had her troubles but, like all thoroughbreds, she bears them with dignity. She once had four lovely children. Only one is left. People talk, but where the others are now no one really knows. She used to have four companions too but only three have remained faithful. This lady has kept at her post undaunted through the years - a proud symbol of Montgomery.

She is the lady on the fountain at Court Square and one of Montgomery's oldest citizens for she has been here since 1886. Her story goes back more than a hundred years [1940]to the time before Montgomery was ever dreamed of.

Andrew Dexter never saw the lady on the fountain, for he was carried away in the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1837 but he is part of her story.

Back in 1817 people didn't buy land in the wilderness that was to be the state of Alabama. Not many people wanted it at all and those who did could get it by entering claims. Andrew Dexter filed a claim in the Milledgeville, Georgia, land office for certain lands on the Alabama River. About the same time George Clayton, John Scott, and others, filed claims in about the same territory. Dexter, who was a Yankee, named his tract of land New Philadelphia. The Clayton and Scott tract was named Alabama Town. Both became thriving little communities and soon there was great rivalry between them. When plans were begun to remove the county seat from Fort Jackson to this section a great controversy arose over whether it would be located in New Philadelphia or in Alabama Town. Finally it was decided that the Court House would be located on the line between the two, and that the two towns would be merged into one. The line ran through the basin where the Lady of the Fountain stands today, and the one town was to be Montgomery.

New Philadelphia was the eastern section where the streets run at right angles to Court Square. Alabama Town was the western section where the streets, including Commerce, ran out at a sharper angle from Court. Market Street, the principal thoroughfare of New Philadelphia was changed to Dexter Avenue in honor of the town's founder.

The Court House was provided for at the present fountain site by an act of the Alabama Legislature or Assembly on December 3, 1819. Alabama became a state December 14, 1819. The short period of eleven days which intervened has given rise to the claim that Montgomery's Courthouse at Court Square was the first in the State of Alabama.

It was two years later, however, that Montgomery's first Court House, a log structure, was built. In. the plot in front of the building, court square, of course, was an artesian well which soon became the center of the town's activity. Slaves, hay, and cotton were sold at auction here. The town's wits gathered here to argue over politics. Campaign speeches were made, and many transactions of public importance were made around the old town pump.

At that time the water in the city wells was piped from the river and was so muddy and dirty it could not be safely used for drinking until it had been boiled. Therefore, everyone in the vicinity sent to this pump or to the "little basin," where Bibb crosses Commerce Street, for drinking water. The Court Square well did not overflow as did the Commerce Street well, so that sometime before 1854 a basin was dug in the hope that at ten or twelve feet lower an overflow could be obtained and the resultant pool could be used to put out fires in the rapidly growing city. Only A timid overflow came, however, and the bottom of the basin remained dry.

An iron railing was put around the basin and one went down about eight or ten steps to reach the pipe,which extended from the side of the wall and obtain water from its continuous flow. A stout circular bench was placed around the inside of the basin and here court attendants and country men sat to eat their lunches, drink from the pump and discuss the affairs of their neighbors and the world. Everyone seemed, very happy: with this arrangement for some half a century, but Montgomery was growing fast, and after the reconstruction's horrors were over, the town began taking stock of itself and putting on citified airs.

Just when the grumblings about the old basin began it is hard to tell, but they must have been well underway when Old Grandma Advertiser muttered thusly to herself on October 8, 1884:

"There is everywhere in the city an expression of regret at the action of a majority of the City Council on Monday night in voting down a resolution to appropriate a reasonable sum of money with which to improve and render somewhat attractive the artesian basin. Our City Fathers have shown themselves in the main to be progressive and public-spirited. They have made many needed improvements, but nothing deserves more consideration at their hands than the basin. It is open and free to all and essentially belongs to the public. Montgomery is the Capital of a great state and is no longer a crossroads town. No city of its size and importance in this country is so unadorned; so free from artistic embellishments.

"This stream of water in the very heart of our principal square should be utilized and its surroundings made to present a more sightly appearance. The people indulge the hope that it is not yet too late for the Council to do something. If nothing better can be done, let the excavation be filled with rocks and earth by the street force, and the iron railing be repaired and painted and a mound put in the middle of the basin. This could be done at a trifling cost, and this much, at least, is imperatively demanded. It ought to be done. The just expectations of the citizens of Montgomery in this regard should not be any longer disappointed."

These words must have had some weight, for on October 29, 1884, Alderman Fleming moved at a meeting of the city council that $1,500 or so much thereof as may be necessary be appropriated for the purpose of beautifying the basin. Alderman T. H. Carr moved as a substitute that the Mayor appoint a committee of three to procure plans for this improvement. His motion was adopted. On April 10 of the next year (1885) Alderman Carr reported to the Council plans for the erection of a fountain in Court Square. Mayor Gaston directed that plans for the fountain and a diagram of the square be sent to L. 0. Barrett, Atlanta landscape engineer, and that he be consulted as to the suitability of the fountain for the "tasteful and effective ornamentation of the square."

A resolution to place a fountain in Court Square and to spend $4,900 on improvements of the basin was adopted, and on May 19, 1885, the Advertiser reported that the plan, as shown by Alderman Carr, was 46 exceedingly neat and attractive, and all the people of Montgomery will rejoice to know that at last that eyesore will be removed."

Mr. Carr went to Atlanta to purchase the fountain, and found there the beautiful work of Frederick MacMonnies by which Montgomery is so well known today. The fountain was made originally for a wealthy easterner who had ordered it for the park around his home. This man had refused the completed work of art, or had not been able to pay for it. That point is not clear in the records. At any rate, it had found its way to Atlanta where it was exhibited at the Atlanta Exposition.

The fountain is a smaller duplication in bronze of the central part of a much larger fountain presented to the city of San Francisco by one of her millionaire citizens. Some say that the price paid for our fountain was $7,000; others say $10,000. Here again the record is full of contradictions.

Another point of conflict among Montgomery historians is what became of the fountain after it was brought here from Atlanta. Mrs. Mary Gunter Ehnore, who made a study of the fountain's history in the early twenties, wrote for publication in the Advertiser that when Mr. Carr returned from Atlanta, the City Council refused to ratify the purchase and that Mr. Carr paid for the fountain and stored it near the railroad. According to her story, Mr. Carr lost several thousand dollars on the fountain when the city finally bought it and erected it on Court Square.

Another story is that the fountain was paid for at once and erected immediately. The memories of older citizens as well as the records are strangely confused as to this point. At any rate, the fountain was put in its place early in the administration of Warren S. Reese, Sr., as mayor, who said in his report of April 30, 1886:

"What to do with the artesian basin in Court Square has been a question which the City Council has considered for many years. Happily you have solved it by the erection of a magnificent fountain which is admired by all, does away with a nuisance, and adds another attraction to our already beautiful city." All was not well, however, for Old Grandma Advertiser was grumbling again by October.

"The goddess of liberty which adorns Court Square fountain has but four fingers on one hand. There is nothing which so disfigures a lady as to have four fingers on one hand." Either Old Grandma had a preview of the lady before she was raised aloft, or she had exceptionally good eyes. Or maybe she wanted to see if anyone knew better!

The fountain was one of the earlier works of MacMonnies, the great American sculptor and pupil, at seventeen, of Augustus Saint Gaudens. Later he was admitted to the studios of Falguiere and Antonia Mercie. His "Nathan Hale" stands in City Hall Park, New York, and "James S. T. Stranahan" in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. His "Bachante" was purchased for the Luxembourg Galleries. Work by MacMonnies is to be seen in Washington Memorial Arch, New York, The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Indianapolis, Battle Monument at West Point, the bronze angels in Saint Paul's Church, New York and the colossal "Civic Virtue" group in New York.

Flowers and shrubbery were planted around the basin. Gold fish and, according to Mrs. Elmore, white swans swam in its waters. Montgomery, for a period, proudly enjoyed the new fountain.

Then the modem spirit of utilitarianism arose during the term of Gaston Gunter as mayor. The City Fathers began agitation of a movement to erect a skyscraper in the fountain's place. James Parrish is recorded by Mrs. Elmore as chairman of this plan and she notes that although arrangements for the skyscraper had made some progress, the noble men in authority yielded to the convincing arguments for the continuance of the fountain, and it was bronzed and painted.

Again, during the World War [World War I], a cry was raised for the utilization of this space. One of the suggestions taken under consideration was the establishment of an underground rest room to provide a waiting place for soldiers and the number of visitors who were flocking to the city.

Terry Greil, appearing before a committee to make preparations for the entertainment of soldiers here, was quoted as saying "It will be impossible ever to utilize the surface space at Court Square as long as sentiment clings to the fountain, but we can tunnel under it and make a subterranean station that could be as large as necessary and not interfere at all with the present construction of the business district. There is a similar place in Indianapolis and in numerous large cities where economy of space is necessary. If the fountain cannot be removed, it can be beautified, the pool made shallow, the railing removed, and the shrubbery distributed so that seats and steps could be placed to provide a decorative entrance to the rest rooms underneath."

The idea was declared by architects not impractical, and was under consideration for several weeks.

The fountain remained in its place in spite of these and many other suggestions that the square could be used to better advantage. The lofty lady maintained her dignity through it all until a hot June day in 1922, when she was accidentally knocked off and broken to pieces. One of the babies on the top plane also tumbled from its foundation and crashed into the basin, breaking an arm. The baby was removed for repairs and soon returned, but it was a long time before the lady was sufficiently restored to resume her perch. She was in grave danger of never returning, for an Advertiser reporter quoted City Engineer H. A. Washburn as saying he was trying to evolve some scheme of mending the statue but he feared she was so grievously broken that it would be impossible.