Buckingham Fountain is a
Chicago Landmark in the center of
Grant Park, between
Queen's Landing and
Ida B. Wells Drive. Dedicated in 1927 and donated to the city by philanthropist
Kate S. Buckingham, it is one of the largest fountains in the world. Built in a
rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
wedding cake style and inspired by the
Latona Fountain
The Latona Fountain in the Gardens of Versailles lies in the Latona Basin between the Chateau de Versailles and the Grand Canal. On the top tier, there is a statue of the goddess Latona, mother of the sun and moon gods. The fountain operates thr ...
at the
Palace of Versailles, its design allegorically represents nearby
Lake Michigan. The fountain operates from May to mid-October, with regular water shows and evening colored-light shows. During the winter, the fountain is decorated with festival lights.
History
The
fountain
A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), 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.
Fountains were ori ...
area is considered Chicago's front door, since it is located in the center of
Grant Park, the city's front yard near the intersection of Columbus Drive and Ida B. Wells Drive. The fountain itself represents
Lake Michigan, with four sets of sea horses (two per set) symbolizing the four states—
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
and
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
—that border the lake. The fountain was designed by
beaux arts architect
Edward H. Bennett. The statues were created by the French sculptor
Marcel F. Loyau. The design of the fountain was inspired by the ''Bassin de Latone'' and modeled after
Latona Fountain
The Latona Fountain in the Gardens of Versailles lies in the Latona Basin between the Chateau de Versailles and the Grand Canal. On the top tier, there is a statue of the goddess Latona, mother of the sun and moon gods. The fountain operates thr ...
at
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...
.
The fountain was donated to the city by
Kate Sturges Buckingham in memory of her brother, Clarence Buckingham, and was constructed at a cost of $750,000. The fountain's official name is the ''Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain''. Kate Buckingham also established the Buckingham Fountain
Endowment Fund
A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...
with an initial investment of $300,000 to pay for maintenance.
Buckingham Fountain was dedicated on August 26, 1927.
In August 2016, in a partnership with the City of Chicago, the Chicago Parks District and Everywhere Wireless, the Buckingham Fountain viewing area joined many
Chicago beaches
The beaches in Chicago are an extensive network of waterfront recreational areas operated by the Chicago Park District. The Chicago metropolitan waterfront includes parts of the Lake Michigan shores as well as parts of the banks of the Chicag ...
and the
Museum Campus
Museum Campus is a park in Chicago that sits alongside Lake Michigan in Grant Park and encompasses five of the city's most notable attractions: the Adler Planetarium, America's first planetarium; the Shedd Aquarium; the Field Museum of Natura ...
in providing free
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...
to visitors.
Operation
Many tourists and Chicagoans visit the fountain each year. The fountain operates daily 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. from mid-April through mid-October, unless below freezing weather conditions dictate otherwise. Water shows occur every hour on-the-hour and last 20 minutes. During shows, the center jet shoots up vertically to , and after dusk shows are choreographed with lights and music. The last show begins at 10:00 p.m. nightly.
The fountain is constructed of Georgia pink marble and contains of water. During a display, more than are pushed through its 193 jets. The bottom pool of the fountain is in diameter, the lower basin is , the middle basin is and the upper basin is . The lip of the upper basin is above the water in the lower basin.
The fountain's pumps are controlled by a
Honeywell
Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...
computer which was previously located in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, until the 1994 renovation when it was moved to the pump house of the fountain. The fountain's security system is monitored from Arlington Heights (a Chicago suburb).
Renovations
In 1994, the fountain received a $2.8 million restoration to its three smallest basins which developed leaks due to Chicago's harsh winters.
The latest renovation project on Buckingham Fountain began in September 2008. This three-phase project will modernize aging internal systems in the fountain and restore deteriorated features. Funding is a combination from the Buckingham endowment, city and park district funds and a grant from the
Lollapalooza music festival which is held annually near the fountain.
Phase I was dedicated April 3, 2009. This phase included permeable pavers to surround the fountain. This replaced the crushed stone that was used since the fountain was constructed. The pavers make a safer and smoother surface and complies with the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ...
.
Phase II began in the winter of 2009. This phase included the demolition of the fountain table, installation of extensive underdrainage system, new landscaping, site lighting, signs, site furnishings, sewer system, selective demolition within or adjacent to the fountain's outer basin, repairs of some existing cast-in-place concrete elements and installation of new cast-in-place elements. Work was not completed due to lack of funds and the Chicago Park District has not announced when it expects to finish this phase.
Phase III updates have not been scheduled until Phase II projects are completed. This phase will include the restoration of Buckingham Fountain and fountain table, the construction of a new equipment room with selective demolition, structural construction and repair, masonry restoration and repair, mechanical and electrical work, bronze restoration and repair and installation of site improvements and amenities.
In popular culture
Entertainment
Buckingham Fountain was featured in the title sequences of TV shows ''
Married... with Children'' and ''
Crime Story''.
The fountain was the starting point for the television show ''
The Amazing Race 6
''The Amazing Race 6'' is the sixth season of the American reality television series ''The Amazing Race''. It featured eleven teams of two racing around the world.
The season premiered on CBS on November 16, 2004, and concluded on February 8, 20 ...
'' in 2004 and was featured in a task 13 years later on ''
The Amazing Race 29
''The Amazing Race 29'' is the twenty-ninth season of the American reality television show ''The Amazing Race''. Unlike previous seasons, which almost exclusively featured teams with pre-existing relationships, this season featured 22 contestants ...
''.
Confusion with Route 66
Buckingham Fountain is often incorrectly identified as the eastern terminus of historic
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
(the road to California), but, although near, it was not the end point of that historic route. The original eastern terminus was nearby at the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and
Michigan Avenue in downtown
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. In a later alignment, the terminus was moved east two blocks through
Grant Park to the intersection of Jackson and
Lake Shore Drive after the latter was designated as
U.S. Route 41. It remained there until the eastern terminus of Interstate 55 was completed at Lake Shore Drive, and then that also became the eastern terminus of Route 66 until I-55 completely replaced the route in Illinois and Route 66 was decommissioned.
Nevertheless, many people still associate Buckingham Fountain with the start of Route 66, even though it had not been built yet when the route opened on November 11, 1926 — whereas the
Fountain of the Great Lakes
''Fountain of the Great Lakes'', or ''Spirit of the Great Lakes Fountain'', is an allegorical sculpture and fountain by Lorado Taft. The bronze artwork, created between 1907 and 1913, depicts five women arranged so that the fountains waterfall r ...
in the South Garden of the
Art Institute of Chicago, which has been near the intersection of Jackson and Michigan since 1913, actually preceded Route 66 by 13 years and Buckingham Fountain by 14 years. Because Jackson is now a one way street going ''east'', the historic commemorative signs for Route 66 now show "End" at Jackson, but "Begin" is moved one block north to Adams Street (in front of the Art Institute), which is a one way going ''west''.
Gallery
File:Buckingham_Fountain_through_the_Fence.jpg, Through the fence 2009
File:Buckingham_Fountain_Grant_Park_Chicago.jpg, Night view 2014
File:Buckingham_Fountain_with_Tulips.jpg, Tulips nearby 2009
File:Chicago_-_Buckingham_Fountain_3.jpg, Sea serpent 2014
File:Buckingham_Fountain_in_Chicago,_USA.jpg, Skyline & serpent 2010
See also
*
History of fountains in the United States
References
External links
Chicago Landmarks: Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain and GardenChicago Park District: Buckingham FountainRestore Buckingham Fountain
{{Chicago Landmark memorials and monuments
Fountains in Illinois
Chicago Landmarks
Buildings and structures completed in 1927
Buildings and structures in Chicago
Historic district contributing properties in Illinois
1927 establishments in Illinois
Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago
Fish in art