U.S. Fountain Capitol Celebrates Spring

The Children's Fountain (by Tom Corbin) is in North Kansas City off Hwy 9.

Kansas City, Mo. has, count ?EUR??,,????'??em, 47 public fountains.

According to the City of Fountains Foundation, established in Kansas City in 1973, Kansas City has more than 200 fountains. This is a world-class number. Only Rome has more.

The water jets at Crown Center Square Fountain propel water 60 feet skyward.

The city celebrates spring with Fountain Day, the day the public fountains are turned back on. The ?EUR??,,????'??kick off?EUR??,,????'?? of Fountain Day this year, April 6, began at the eponymous Thomas H. Swope Memorial Fountain, completed in 1922 and updated in 2003. Swope is the fellow who donated the land where Swope Park now resides. This modest fountain has an elevated view of the park and is one of two city fountains that run off solar energy! Grundfos, a leading pump manufacturer (10,000 employees in 40 countries) based in Bjerringbro, Denmark, donated the solar equipment after hearing of budget troubles the city had to keep the fountains flowing.

The Thomas H. Swope Memorial Fountain is a six-ft. pedestal fountain and one of two Kansas City fountains that runs off solar power.

K.C.?EUR??,,????'???s infatuation with fountains began in 1898 when George Kessler, a landscape architect and urban planner, designed the city?EUR??,,????'???s first fountain. That fountain was destroyed in 1941, but Kessler designed another one the same year. That fountain, now called the Women’s Leadership Fountain, is the city?EUR??,,????'???s oldest standing fountain.

In 1904, the Humane Society of Kansas City built a fountain with four small pools for dogs to drink from at street level and a four-ft. diameter granite basin at a height for horses. Water came out of spigots in lions’ mouths for people to fill their water cups. This historic fountain now resides in the Wyandotte County Museum.