The list of fountains in the Kansas City metropolitan area contains those now officially recognized by the City of Fountains Foundation. The trend began in the late 1800s with humanitarian public drinking water projects in Kansas City, Missouri, and this identity has influenced fountains across the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 1992, the city of Kansas City, Missouri added "City of Fountains" to its official corporate seal. [1]
Water fountains are part of Kansas City's core identity and culture, including a graphic design of a stylized fountain in the city's official logo. [1] Interest in fountains arose during the City Beautiful movement in the 1890s. In 1898, George Kessler, a landscape architect and urban planner, designed the first fountain built by the city of Kansas City, Missouri at 15th and The Paseo. Another fountain that he designed the same year is now known as The Women's Leadership Fountain, and is located at 9th Street and The Paseo as the oldest in the city. The design originally included an oval, cut limestone basin with water spraying upward from nozzles in the center of its pool surrounded by a raised sidewalk, a flower garden, gas lamps, and a balustrade above to the south. [2] The fountain was destroyed in 1941 and rebuilt in 1970 and 1990, and began its third major restoration in January 2008 planned for completion in 2009. [3] Kessler went on to include numerous plans for fountains in his urban designs of the park and boulevard system.
Typically, most of the first fountains in Kansas City served practical rather than decorative purposes. In 1904, the Humane Society of Kansas City in Kansas – established to prevent cruelty to women, children and animals – built a characteristic fountain near the west end of Minnesota Avenue at North 3rd Street. Water poured out of spigots in lions' mouths so that people could get clean water in their cups. This water fell into a granite basin at a height for horses to drink. The overflow from the basin went into four small pools at street level for dogs to drink. A street light was on top; in 1967, the fountain was given to the Wyandotte County Museum. The Humane Society went on to mount more than 100 fountains, including ones made of bronze created for people alone for sanitary purposes. [2]
Fountain building and the use of decorative statuary exploded in the 1920s after developer J.C. Nichols used them extensively in the development of Country Club Plaza. The most famous fountain in Kansas City is appropriately named J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain. The figures were originally created by French sculptor Henri-Léon Gréber in 1910 for "Harbor Hill", the estate of Clarence Mackay in Roslyn, New York. The four allegorical equestrian figures reportedly represent four great rivers of the world — the Mississippi River, Volga River, Seine River, and Rhine River. [4] The work is enlivened by sculptures of little children riding dolphins in the pool surrounding the main figures.
The William Volker Memorial Fountain includes the last sculptures by Swedish artist Carl Milles. The five-piece ensemble of bronze statuary shows Saint Martin of Tours, patron saint of France, on horseback, giving his clothes to a beggar surrounded by two angels (one absurdly wearing a wristwatch) and a curious little demon in hiding. The sculptures rest between two pools of water with jet sprays along Volker Boulevard, and sits above a dramatic three-tier, 28 ft (8.5 m) waterfall into a basin on Brush Creek.
The Eagle Scout Memorial Fountain was originally part of the Seventh Avenue clock created by A.A. Weinman for the Pennsylvania Station in New York City. When the station was torn down, Kansas City petitioned to obtain the clock sculpture and replaced its face with an Eagle Scout tribute.
The Waterworks Spectacular has been dousing the outfield during baseball games at Kauffman Stadium for more than 30 years.
Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the most populated municipality and historic core city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri state line and has a population of 2,392,035. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, with portions spilling into Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west. On June 1, 1850, the town of Kansas was incorporated; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued, and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after.
A fountain, from the Latin "fons", meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect.
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri and Kansas. With 8,472 square miles (21,940 km2) and a population of more than 2.2 million people, it is the second-largest metropolitan area centered in Missouri and is the largest metropolitan area in Kansas, though Wichita is the largest metropolitan area centered in Kansas. Alongside Kansas City, Missouri, these are the suburbs with populations above 100,000: Overland Park, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas; Olathe, Kansas; Independence, Missouri; and Lee's Summit, Missouri.
A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a reflective surface.
The Country Club Plaza is a privately-owned regional shopping center in the Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri. Opened in 1923, it was the first planned suburban shopping center and the first regional shopping center to accommodate shoppers arriving by car.
Carl Milles was a Swedish sculptor. He was married to artist Olga Milles and brother to Ruth Milles and half-brother to the architect Evert Milles. Carl Milles sculpted the Gustaf Vasa statue at the Stockholm Nordic Museum, the Poseidon statue in Gothenburg, the Orpheus group outside the Stockholm Concert Hall, and the Fountain of Faith in Falls Church, Virginia. His home near Stockholm, Millesgården, became his resting place and is now a museum.
Crown Center is a shopping center and neighborhood located near Downtown Kansas City, Missouri between Gillham Road and Main Street to the east and west, and between OK/E 22nd St and E 27th St to the north and south. The shopping center is anchored by Halls, a department store which is owned and operated by Hallmark Cards. The neighborhood contains numerous residences, retail establishments, entertainment venues, and restaurants including the American Restaurant, the only Forbes Travel Guide four-star restaurant in Missouri. It is home to Hallmark Cards, and the headquarters of Shook, Hardy & Bacon and Lathrop GPM, two of Kansas City's largest law firms.
Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway, and colloquially in local usage "the Parkway", is a scenic boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia. Named for Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, the mile-long Parkway cuts diagonally across the grid plan pattern of Center City's northwest quadrant. It starts at Philadelphia City Hall, curves around Logan Circle, and ends before the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The architecture of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, especially Kansas City, Missouri, includes major works by some of the world's most distinguished architects and firms, including McKim, Mead and White; Jarvis Hunt; Wight and Wight; Graham, Anderson, Probst and White; Hoit, Price & Barnes; Frank Lloyd Wright; the Office of Mies van der Rohe; Barry Byrne; Edward Larrabee Barnes; Harry Weese; and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
The list of neighborhoods of Kansas City, Missouri has nearly 240 neighborhoods. The list includes only Kansas City, Missouri and not the entire Kansas City metropolitan area, such as Kansas City, Kansas.
Ward Parkway is a boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, near the Kansas-Missouri state line. Ward Parkway begins at Brookside Boulevard on the eastern edge of the Country Club Plaza and continues westward along Brush Creek as U.S. Route 56 until it turns southward across the creek just before the Kansas-Missouri state line. It then continues south for four miles, terminating at Wornall Road near West 95th Street.
The Paseo is a major north–south parkway in Kansas City, Missouri. As the city's first major boulevard, it runs approximately 10 miles (16 km) through the center of the city: from Cliff Drive and Lexington Avenue on the bluffs above the Missouri River in the Pendleton Heights historic neighborhood, to 85th Street and Woodland Avenue. The parkway holds 223 acres (0.90 km2) of boulevard parkland dotted with several Beaux-Arts-style decorative structures and architectural details maintained by the city's Parks and Recreation department.
Dale Eldred was an internationally acclaimed sculptor renowned for large-scale sculptures that emphasized both natural and generated light.
Henri-Léon Greber was a French sculptor, and medallist. His son was the architect Jacques Gréber. Active in the United States, he produced a fountain sculpture of four equestrian statues for Harbor Hill in 1910, and the copy of The Kiss in the Philadelphia Rodin Museum.
Cascading Waterfall is a public art work by American artist John Joseph Earley, located in Meridian Hill Park, Washington, DC. Cascading Waterfall was originally surveyed as part of the Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! survey in 1994. The fountain, reminiscent of 16th century Italian villas, focuses primarily on thirteen large semi-circular basins forming a water cascade that overlooks the historic park. The fountains are the largest of their kind in the United States.
Jørgen Christian Dreyer was a Norwegian-born American sculptor. He emigrated to the United States in 1903 and worked as a professor of sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1907 to 1909. In his career Dreyer created a number of monumental sculptures, some of which are located in Kansas City, Missouri. His major works include: Life Drift; The Goddess of Dawn; Sphinxes (pair); Biology and Chemistry ; Lionesses (pair); The Message ; Bust of Sir Carl Busch; Mercury, god of commerce; and Bust of Major General Sterling Price.
The Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden is a 2-acre botanic garden and part of the Kauffman Legacy Park, located in Kansas City, Missouri. It is maintained in a collaborative effort by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Powell Gardens. The gardens are located near Country Club Plaza and the main campus of University of Missouri–Kansas City. The Kauffman Memorial Garden is enclosed by limestone walls and has brick paths and seating areas. The garden showcases five designs.
Gardens of the World is a botanical garden in Thousand Oaks, California, situated directly across Thousand Oaks Boulevard from Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, within the downtown core of the city. Established in 2001, the park was given to the city by the owners of a local travel agency. It is home to a French garden and waterfall, an English rose garden, an Italian grapevine garden and a Japanese garden with koi ponds and a pagoda. The park is used for walking and picnicking, and guided tours of the gardens are available. The Californian Mission Courtyard includes native California flora and murals of the remaining 21 California Missions. There is also a statue of Father Junipero Serra in this part of the park. The botanical garden is 4.5 acres (1.8 ha).
Downtown Wichita is the central business district of Wichita, Kansas, United States. The political and financial hub of the city, it is home to several of the area's major landmarks and event venues including the Epic Center, Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center, Intrust Bank Arena, and the Old Town entertainment district.
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