Wells Fountain, (sculpture).

Wells Fountain, (sculpture).

Mead, William Rutherford, 1846-1928, sculptor.

Wells Fountain, (sculpture).

Wells Drinking Fountain, (sculpture).

1890. Dedicated Oct. 11, 1890. Relocated 1986.

Digital Reference:

Granite and iron.

Sculpture: approx. 13 x 11 x 8 ft.; Base: approx. H. 2 ft. x Diam. 25 ft.

A circular basin with a smaller basin inside. The larger basin has two lion head medallions on opposite sides. Two Corinthian columns support a lintel which straddles the outside basin. The lintel supports an iron and glass electric lantern hanging over the center of the fountain.

Outdoor Sculpture -- Vermont -- Brattleboro

Administered by Town of Brattleboro, Department of Public Works, 230 Main Street, Brattleboro, Vermont 05301

Located Wells Fountain Park, Intersection of Main, Walnut, & Linden Streets, Brattleboro, Vermont 05301

The Wells Fountain was funded by William Henry Wells, a New York businessman who grew up in Brattleboro. The Wells Fountain was designed by William Rutherford Mead (b. 1846 in Brattleboro), a partner in the firm of McKim, Mead & White. The fountain marks the spot where the architect's older brother, sculptor Larkin G. Mead, Jr., created his famous eight foot snow statue known as "Snow Angel" on New Years' Eve 1856. (The incident was reported in the national press and immortalized by James Russell Lowell in his poem "A Good Word for Winter.") Originally, the Wells Fountain sat on the grounds in front of E. J. Carpenter's villa, but in 1933 the house was demolished and replaced by a gas station, leaving the fountain isolated in the midst of a traffic circle. In 1986, the fountain was moved twenty feet back from its original site. IAS files contain a copy of the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form for this fountain.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Vermont survey 1992.

Cabot, Mary R., "Annals of Brattleboro 1681-1895," Brattleboro, VT: E. L. Hildreth & Co., 1921.

Vermont Phoenix (Brattleboro, VT), April 1, 1932.

Brattleboro Reformer (Brattleboro, VT), Feb. 18, 1984, pg. 5, 13.

Vermont Phoenix (Brattleboro, VT), Oct. 10, 1890, Vol. LVII.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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