RACC Press Releases
September 21, 2005
Water Flows Again
at Historic Skidmore Fountain
September 22
Water will splash from the graceful bowls of the Skidmore Fountain (SW 1 st & Pine) once again beginning at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 22, 2005, when citizens can join City Commissioners Sam Adams and Randy Leonard in celebrating the event. Commissioner Leonard will turn the key to start the water flowing at the exact local time in 1888 when the first dedication of the fountain occurred.
The fountain has been undergoing sculpture conservation and fountain restoration work over the past few months which ensures that it will operate for at least another 117 years. The work has been a collaborative effort between the Portland Water Bureau and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC). The sculpture conservation work was overseen by RACC with the fountain restoration work under the oversight of the Water Bureau. Funding was coordinated by RACC with the assistance of a $33,000 grant from the Water Bureau. The project included upgrading of the plumbing, cleaning and repairing the granite basin, reconfiguring the basin floor to improve drainage, conservation of the bronze sculpture, caulking all joints and replacing the cement coating on the column base. The conservation of the city’s oldest public sculpture occurs as the City and County celebrate the 25th anniversary of their respective Percent for Art Programs.
Local conservator Marie Laibinis-Craft and Corvallis-based conservator Tom Fuller led this extensive project. To clean the sculpture, they used a combination of walnut shell blasting and mechanical removal by hand of extensive lime deposits on the bronze. Aluminum oxide was used to clean the granite. Following the cleaning, they applied a protective wax coating to the bronze surfaces. In addition Laibinis-Craft is re-sculpting the damaged parts of the decorative lion heads on the basin surround. This conservation work, followed with annual maintenance by RACC and the Water Bureau, will assure the longevity of the fountain for years to come. The total project cost will be $41,000.
Background
The Skidmore Fountain is Portland's oldest piece of public art and has been praised as one of the finest fountains in American art. Stephen G. Skidmore, a druggist who arrived in Portland by covered wagon, left $5,000 in his will for a fountain for men, horses, and dogs. His friends raised an additional $18,000 and New York sculptor Olin L. Warner was commissioned to design it. The fountain is 14-feet-tall with a bronze basin eight feet in diameter resting on a central granite shaft and two bronze caryatids, classical Grecian female figures. Four stone watering troughs alternate with stone steps leading to the octagonal base, which is inscribed "Good citizens are the riches of a city," a quote from C.E.S. Wood. The troughs fill with water flowing from the fountain through miniature lion heads. In its early days, metal drinking cups were attached by chains to four of the heads. Although, the plaza was the center of Portland when the fountain was dedicated on September 22, 1888, the New York Tribune implied that the fountain was too fine an achievement "for a western city with its bewhiskered, bepistoled lot of frontiersmen."
Randy Leonard is the Commissioner-in-Charge for the Portland Water Bureau.Sam Adams is the Commissioner-in-Charge for the Regional Arts & Culture Council.
Through vision, leadership and service the Regional Arts
& Culture Council works to integrate arts and culture in all aspects of
community life.
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Jeff Hawthorne
Director of Community Affairs
503.823.5258
jhawthorne@racc.org
Mary Bauer
Communications Associate
503.823.5426
mbauer@racc.org
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