Fountain Project - 2026?

[Fighting]

I am posting it for constructive help. I’ve never been civic-minded, so this is all brand new to me. If you have an opinion, share it. If you are 53 years old and live with your mom and collect Social Security, maybe you should save it?

My wife and I are trying to restore our 1870s home. I was in our local library looking for information and found some amazing pictures of the town in the 1800s. What stood out most for me is, we once had an amazing fountain at the main intersection of main st. The pictures of it, it was cool as shit. It’s gone now. I was immediately struck by its beauty and wondered where it went and who has this fountain now.

I found no good info about our house. They told me to go to the historical society next. That’s where I went.

This town also had these large basin-style fountains down the streets, and they were for horses to get a sip out of. Also very beautiful and elaborate. There are no more of them either. Wonder where they ended up? All gone now too. Except one of them! The historical society has one. It’s amazing! They told me they salvaged it out of a local dump. My fear is that’s where the others ended up too.

I am enamored with these fountains. I just love them. At our centennial park, we have a fountain though… The problem with it is it’s from Temu or some shit. It’s like 3 feet high and absolute dogshit. lol. Not these crazy Victorian fountains I love from the town’s past.

If we had our originals, it could be in the park where this POS is. The idea kept creeping up on me to find out where our main fountain went. The historical society said, " We honestly do not know. No one does. No one is alive who would know. It got taken down in 1911 and that’s all we know." FUCK. Did it end up in a dump or get melted down? They said in the great wars a lot of them were recycled for war material. Is that the fate?

I started snooping around for some answers. I found out who made it. Who designed it, who poured it, and how much it cost. I don’t know if the historical society even knows this. It was made by JL Mott Iron Works. We (the town) got it in the late 1880s. It is a stature called “Hebe” a Greek goddess. It was also on a large basin and pedestal. It stood almost 12’ high!

A town in Oregon has one of its exact duplicates still up, bought by the same company around the same time. I want our town’s statue back! So, how would I find out what happened to our towns if all those people are dead? That seems very difficult to find the answers to. The historical society I presume has tried decades ago and gave up.

I will prob end up giving up too, but not for now! I kept digging and I found out who owns the old JL Mott Iron Works designs, casts and rights to it’s catalog of items they sold. They are a company in Alabama. They can cast us a new fountain!

My goal is to crowdfund a new fountain for this town and replace the POS in the park with an exact copy of our original. I am at step 1 in a couple-year-long project to make this happen!

[Fighting]

I guess I will contact the company in Alabama, get an idea on the price. I will then write up a cost prospectus, and go to the city and see what they say. They will of course tell me they have no money for a new one, and then I should hit them with the idea of crowd founding the project?

So how do I get the 75,000 I am guess it would cost? A city wide collection? Events? Door to door donations? Coffee cans in the gas stations?

Has anyone ever raised a large sum of money for a civic works project?

[Fighting]

[Altofsky_CTT]

@Fighting

If you are 53 years old and live with your mom and collect Social Security, maybe you should save it?

That seems oddly specific lol.

[Fighting]

Here’s what the town got out of the catalog dated 1875.

[Altofsky_CTT]

No advice to offer since you’ve covered all of what I’d suggest.

But good luck getting it done.

It’s a shame how we toss away history.

[Fighting]

The best picture I can find of it in our town.

This is what I want to be in our park in place of the temu special. I can see it standing there in its resplendent glory!

[Fighting]

@Altofsky_CTT

That seems oddly specific lol.

I sold land to this guy and he had me meet him at his house. I show up and he’s in his late 50s and he lives in HIS SAME BEDROOM he had as a kid. He jokes he is waiting for his mom to die so he can have her house. lol This is the type of dude we got on the OG giving advice to people. Like telling you how to forge steel. hehehhee

[Fighting]

A JL Mott Fountain Still Going Strong

The Scanlan Fountain

[Serpico]

This is a societal issue man, in my town too. Easier to tear down and build back a lower quality product then to maintain beautiful aging things.
All that said, what your doing is really cool, I hope you get it looking like the original pic. *keep posting updates if you can

[Serpico]

And what little i know about fundraising from coaching hs sports, if you have a tax exempt ID number, lawfirms and construction companies can be be pretty generous (better to donate to you than uncle sam).

[Pugilist82]

Very cool. I have no advice, but I wish you luck. Do you have a pic of the horse fountain?

[King_Kong]

Somebody probably bought it at a yard sale for two bucks and has it sitting in their backyard

[King_Kong]

I think a campaign to build a replica is your best shot

[King_Kong]

[Fighting]

@Pugilist82

Very cool. I have no advice, but I wish you luck. Do you have a pic of the horse fountain?

These were up and down the main street and parallel street for them ponies.

This is what we have ONE of.

Side note* It’s hard to see in the pic, but there is two pieces. The basin and the part in the middle. That spout in the middle the town doesn’t have either. The historical society told me every so many years people will say they have that piece, they bring it in and it doesn’t fit. So even that fountain is not complete.

I want to gift the historical society a recast of that spout. If it’s just a couple grand or under.