Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain

Chicago, one of America’s big cities! However, no big city would be complete without an equally large fountain!

The Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain, or the Buckingham fountain for short, is one of the world’s largest fountains. It is located in Chicago’s historic district at the heart of Grant Park.

The Buckingham Fountain was dedicated on August 26, 1927 and was named in memory of Clarence Buckingham, the brother of Kate Buckingham who donated the fountain to the city. The fountain was inspired by the Latona Fountain at Versailles, and is an allegory for Lake Michigan. The fountain has 4 statues that represent Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana.

The Buckingham Fountain operates from mid-April to mid-October from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. It runs every hour on the hour for 20 minutes. The Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain is located on S. Lake Shore Drive, E. Balbo Drive, S. Columbus Drive and E. Jackson Drive

The Big Giving

I woke up today feeling absolutely exhausted…and kind of sick, so I decided to talk about a bizarre fountain that reflected that. It’s called The Big Giving and it is located in London just south of the Hungerford footbridge.

A strange series of seven fountain sculptures by German artist Klaus Weber depict rock people spewing  water out of….well, every orifice imaginable. Let’s just go straight into pictures:

Although I’ve never seen this fountain in person (unfortunately) if I am ever in London I will be sure to make the trip over to The Big Giving.

Forsyth Park Fountain – Savannah Ga

I don’t know if I mentioned that I stopped in Savannah, Ga on my way back to Jacksonville from my trip a couple weeks ago, but I did. And like I mentioned in my very first post, I absolutely love Savannah and all the history there.

One of the most interesting things about this city is that it is apparently haunted. While I was there I asked a local tour guide if he knew about any haunted fountains. (I couldn’t help myself.) Below is the story he told me about the famous Forsyth Park Fountain.

Aaron and Lois Churchill were happily married and lived in what is now Forsyth Park Inn. They brought home a little girl name Lottie one night. Life was perfect for all three of them. One day when Lottie caught her sister Anna in the romantic embraces of her adopted father. Lottie decided that the best solution to the problem was to poison her sister, which she did.

Anna turned out to actually be her mother. When she was told that she had killed her mother Lottie went insane. She was committed from that moment on. The ghost of Lottie is not vengeful and instead is said to have a childlike spirit. The spirit of what she could have been and when she was most happy. Child’s laughter and footsteps are reported most often. She has been seen on the staircase and has been felt by the fountain in which she had watched her poisoned sister die.

St. John Town Center

I wanted to write about another local water feature today! it’s a little different from my typical posts because this water feature is not really a fountain. It’s a cool man-made pond that was built outside one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Jacksonville, Maggiano’s.

This man-made pond is so whimsical and fun. There are a couple of metal herons who have spouts of water coming from their beaks, so I guess this pond could also be considered a fountain. I really love it though, and always spend a little time at it whenever I’m at the town center.

When I was looking for pictures of this fountain online I found out that it was made by the same construction company some of my other favorite local fountains were made by. I’m not surprised!