(Downtown Metter City Park Fountain), (sculpture).

(Downtown Metter City Park Fountain), (sculpture).

Bailey, Ivan, sculptor.

Holloway, Lamar, contractor.

Holloway, Lance, contractor.

(Downtown Metter City Park Fountain), (sculpture).

Two Herons, (sculpture).

1979. Dedicated January 1980.

Digital Reference:

Fountain: galvanized steel; Base: marble; Pool: Savannah gray brick.

Sculpture: approx. H. 10 ft. x Diam. 4 ft. 8 in.; Pool: approx. Diam. 18 1/2 ft.

A two-tiered fountain featuring two African cattle egrets, or cowbirds, standing on the top tier, and eight Elliottia racemosa plants extending up from the lower bowl to the height of the upper bowl. The bottom bowl has a scalloped edge comprised of Elliottia racemosa leaves. The fountain was originally finished with a marine epoxy resin paint with a green patina. The fountain is mounted atop a circular marble base on rectangular blocks. Five courses of gray brick form the circular pool around the fountain.

Animal -- Bird -- Egret

Object -- Foliage -- Elliottia racemosa

Outdoor Sculpture -- Georgia -- Metter

Administered by City of Metter, P. O. Box 74, Metter, Georgia 30439

Located West Park, 100 block of West North Broad Street, Metter, Georgia

Funded with a National Endowment for the Arts, Art in Public Places grant of $3,480 given in 1979 to the City of Metter. Additional funds were provided by the City of Metter, and contributions to the Metter Garden Club's City Park Fountain Fund from local citizens, businesses, agencies and civic organizations totaling $5,841.45. The Metter Garden Club commissioned the fountain to replace an earlier fountain on the same site. The fountain cost over $11,000. Local organizations contributing to the project included, the American Legion Post, Beta Sigma Phi, the Bi-Centennial Committee, Cherokee Rose Garden, Friendship Home Economics Club, Kiwanis Club, Metter Chapter DAR, and the Pinewood Garden Club.

Mrs. Mildred Fortner, Chair of the Beautification and Civic Improvement Committee of the Metter Garden Club, suggested to the artist that he use the Elliottia Racemosa, a rare shrub found in Candler County, Georgia, also known as the Georgia Plume, and the cattle egret, a graceful white bird indigenous to the area, in his design for the fountain. Contractor Lamar Holloway and his son Lance Holloway constructed the brick pool for the fountain. IAS files contain undated articles from the Metter Advertiser and the Metter Town and Country News from January 1979 through January 1980; correspondence between the garden club and the artist; and letters regarding funding for the project.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Georgia survey, 1993.

Heritage Preservation SOS! survey of NEA Art in Public Places funded sculpture, 2002.

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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