Founders’ Park Fitzgerald Memorial Fountain. Morning. Sept. 14, 2020. For Ted Bell who made it all possible. Paul Goldfinger portrait. ©. Blogfinger.net. Click to enlarge.
SIR EDWARD ELGAR: “Chanson de Matin.” (Morning Song). By the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
David Fox: Thank you for that history. I wasn’t sure about the fountain’s historical name because during the fund-raising to restore the fountain, I don’t recall the HSOG calling it the “Fitzgerald Fountain.” That name surfaced at the time of the re-dedication.
Here is an item from the Blogfinger coverage of the re-dedication:
“Interestingly, during the year of fund raising, the name FitzGerald rarely came up. The fountain was named the “Founders Park Fountain” or the “J.W. Fiske Fountain” or the “Fountain of Hope,” but today it was given yet another name: “The Restored FitzGerald Memorial Fountain of Hope.”
“If you read our Walt Whitman article, you will see a reference to the FitzGerald Fountain, but in the 2019 CMA summer booklet, that name is not found.
“However, regardless of the name, it was a festive event on a sunny July 2019 Saturday morning.”
ALSO: The invitation to the re-dedication in July 2019 by the Historical Society merely refers to it as “The Founders Park Fountain.”
However, David tells us that the fountain was dedicated in Fitzgerald’s memory in 1907. And there are postcards which verify that event.
Interestingly, Gibbons History of Ocean Grove mentions the Alday Fountain, but not the one in Founders Park.
Some confusion in naming probably arose from a name that was later given to the fountain. “The Fountain of Hope.” And then there is the issue of how to spell the Bishop’s last name.
It was Bishop FitzGerald who caused the fountain to be installed in the first place along with other improvements. He order this in March 1907, but died in early April during a visit to Hong Kong, China. The fountain was dedicated in his memory on 31 July 1907.
“Bishop Fitzgerald has ordered superintendent John C. Patterson to lay asphalt walks symmetrically through the park, to grass it, put up benches and to build a fountain. In various other ways such as planting flowers, the park will be beautified. Owing to its commanding position overlooking Wesley Lake, the park naturally lends itself well to adornment. It is one of the principal approaches to the auditorium and these should be made attractive.”