by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The Springfield Improvement Association and Woman’s Club is restoring the fountain in Klutho Park, which was unveiled and dedicated by the club in 1910.
This latest project was also the group’s first.
The organization was formed in 1904 when Mrs. B.F. Dillon invited the ladies of Springfield to join her and improve the neighborhood. When she died in 1907, the members decided to build a fountain in her honor.
The organization had only 39 cents in the bank, so the members held concerts in the park and sold ice cream and lemonade to raise money. The ladies also solicited a large contribution from the Street Railway Company and by 1909 had raised $872, enough to build a marble and bronze fountain in the park and dedicate it in memory of their first president.
By the time the club celebrated the memorial’s 50th anniversary in 1960, time had taken its toll. The bronze cherub sculpture on top had been removed and stored to protect it from vandals. The fountain was clogged and contained only stagnant rain water. The marble and concrete base was later dismantled and removed.
“We call it The Mary Dillon Fountain,” said Chris Farley, club member and fountain historian. “We want to honor Mary Dillon for what she started and what she did. Were it not for her, our parks would not look the way they do.”
Several pieces of the original fountain and statue are located at the club’s headquarters. One section of the original remains in the park and another part is missing, most likely destroyed but possibly still hidden somewhere in the neighborhood.
To help finance the $90,000 restoration, the club is selling inscribed memorial bricks which can be purchased for $50. The bricks will be installed around the base when the new fountain is complete.
“We can make a nice apron around the fountain with 300 bricks, but we’d like to have 500. The more the better. Each brick will tell a story,” said Farley.
“We struggle to get every penny we can to keep up the Springfield Woman’s Club and do good things for the neighborhood. It’s going to be really great to have the fountain restored,” said club President Eva Ayres.
“It will be a faithful restoration. The new marble is coming from the original quarry to match the surviving pieces. It will look like it did in 1910 — maybe better,” said Jody Windsor, project manager for Intron Technologies, a local firm which repairs concrete and specializes in restoration. The company also worked on the fountain at Memorial Park in Riverside and has performed restorations at the Castillo De San Marcos in St. Augustine.
The new fountain will have a proper foundation, which the original lacked. “We’re improving the construction with the new one. There’s no reason it can’t last for 500 years,” Windsor said.
The only other changes from the original will be the memorial bricks surrounding the fountain and a wrought iron fence which will be locked at night to prevent vandalism.
The bronze cherub from the 1910 fountain will be on display at the Springfield Woman’s Club at 210 W. Seventh Street during the 19th Annual Holiday Festival Tour of Homes Dec. 9-10, 6-9 p.m.