One of our major bucket list items was to return to the Kansas City Metro area for a serious fountain hunt. We finally made it and identified over 200 fountains and water features but not all of them could be located so I only have a little under 700 photographs, and another 260 plus photographs of the metro area and Kansas City Zoo. I will not be showing them all but certaintly enough to be inundating. This is also when I started keeping the GPS coordinates of many photographs and the fountain codes reference the map and detailed description list available from the tech section below. Bradley Cramer has a website dedecated to only Hunting Fountains in KC with a lot more details than I will show here as does the City of Fountains Foundation.
One of the largest, most famous, most ornate, and best maintained fountain is the Jesse Clyde Nichols Memorial (F091) located at the south end of Mill Creak Park near the Country Club Plaza shopping area, museums, and many other fountains.
The Seville Light (F150) is named for the sister city of Saville, Spain and located in a little triangular road divider just west of Mill Creek Park. At the time we visited the fountain was not actually operating but I photographed the faces on all four sides not realizing that the faces on opposite sides are identical.
Moving just a little further west the fountain for Pan or if you prefer Bacchus (F001) and associates is located in the courtyard for the Cheesecake Factory. A couple of blocks north the Commerce Bank (F052) has this very nice sculpture in their courtyard and a small fountain in the bank wall.
Pomona (F132) located in the courtyard for the Eddie Bauer store is the Roman goddess protector of gardens, orchards, and most important vineyards shown here with her hands full of grapes. Neptune (F125) shown here rising from the sea on three horses is at the right address, has the right identification plaque, but is totally different from the published description I had available which highlights some of the problems in chasing landmarks. April (F019) shown here watering the flowers ala natural seems appropritely placed on the side of the Victoria Secret store.
Keeping to the ala natural theme for a bit is a unique fountain of Diana (F060), Roman goddess of love, playing with her friends on the corner plaza of the Raphael Hotel in front of one of the largest manmade waterfalls. There is another Diana Sitting (F061) fountain on the west side of the Country Club Plaza that proved very difficult to photograph. Tucked into the parking garage entrance the combination of natural light from the street, low celings, and incandecent overheads presents a lighting challenge and I had to return a few weeks later for the closeup. The Boy and Frog (F034) reminds me of the very famous similar fountain I had the opportunity to see in Brussels. When it comes to fountain plus boy designers seem to have a rather limited imaganation.
The Mermaid Pool (F116) has a plaque reading: "A Morning Prayer" for the children at Mercy Hospital. Say yours and toss a coin.
Donations in the pool go to Children's Mercy Hospital. The little girl praying for your help is tiny but the larger fountain provides a very convient sitting area in the Country Club Plaza area.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park (F178) with this fountain and pool complex is located just north of Mill Creek Park and commerates the 471 local residents killed in this conflict. Hopefully the peace and serenity of this site can continue to help heal the feelings I know I still harbor from having served in this era.
While we normally think of fountains as an outside thing this one graces the lobby of the Embassey Suites Hotel (F065). The Eagle Scout Memorial (F063) is in the hill just north of Hyde Park looking south toward the Art Museum complex east of Country Club Plaza. The Glennwood Place (F074) fountain is basically a pond areator typical of dozens all around the area and the whole country for that matter captured here at sunset.
This small park, pool, and fountain is dedicated the Harold D Rice (F079) who created the City of Fountains Foundation and was a major driving force in adding, maintaining, and promoting the area fountains and I am extremely pleased to see his legacy continuing today although it was somewhat in doubt when we visited in 2010.
The Meyer Circle Fountain (F117) has three tiers, a large pool, and a multitude of waterjets. In contrast the fountain in the Albert P Mauro Browse Garden (F009) at the Zoo is more of a small water feature. The Pioneer Family Fountain (F139) at the Prairie Villiage Shopping Center is again not what the descriptions led me to expect but very nice nontheless. Although it was not operating when we visited the latest GoogleⒸ street view shows it working. This now completes my 12 days of May with the following fountains from the 18 days of June.
Getting a little closer to Independence, Missouri where we were staying is the Bass Pro (F202) water feature which is actually a fountain fed from the pond and pouring down under the road crossing about midway where the closeup was taken.
Bouncing back actually into Kansas is the Shawnee Mission Parkway (F151) fountain marking the entry to Shawnee, Kansas. After our initial focus on the Country Club Plaza area we were now chasing more of the outlaying fountains.
Also in Shawnee was a new fountain in the Westbrook Green (F196) Shopping Center with an upper fountain pool and a lower pond surrounded by a small park. Just sort of wandering around and trying to stay off the interstate and major highways we continued to find these gems scattered, mostly on private business properties, all over the metro area.
Somewhat typical of the the new styles is the Renner Blouvard (F143) series placed in the median between the northbound and southbound lanes. Starting with the stepped #5 on the left and two views of #4, the long trough is #3 and finally #2 shaped like a p or d depending on where you stand. We spent considerable time driving up and down Renner Blouvard but could never locate #1 although there appeared to be a new construction area where it could be placed. This area was still being developed and with the GoogleⒸ satalite images I can't find any of them along the Boluvard. With the prices of water, electricity, and maintenance they may have been caught in a corporate cost reduction program
Still in Kansas, Olathe City Hall (F150) has this nice fountain sculpture which seems very appropriate to the home of GarminⒸ International. The panels in the back are actually tiles rather than reflections of the current sky they lead one to expect. The main Kansas City page shows some additional sculptures.
This is just the top section of the Kansas City Star (F101) fountain which is another very difficult to photograph because it is surrounded and enclosed by mature trees. This part sits in a much larger reflecting pool at the entrance to the building.
Back into downtown the Fountain of Life (F071) is tucked into a small sunken courtyard which you would never notice from a vehicle. Vision (F179) is outside the museum for the Aruba Steamboat located just north of downtown near the Missouri River. The Carl J DeCapo (F042) clifside fountain was likely the inspiration for the larger version at Bass Pro. I showed this as part of our 2006 travels but did not really identify it properly.
The Concourse Fountain (F055) is one of several play fountains in the city. In addition to just getting wet and cool this is a great place for street chalk art which washes away with the rain or running feet. I did show the Children's Fountain (F045) in our 2006 visit but it is great enough to be repeated.
The Volker Memorial (F180) in Frank A Theis Park is more of a sculpture garden in water pools rather than an actual fountain like the JC Nichols Memorial I showed in the beginning.
The Kauffman Memorial (F069) with the dancing girls in the water jets of the pool is sort of a middle ground between the two styles. Located near the Frank A Theis Park along Brush Creek the fountain pool is almost incidential to a very nice garden.
The Crown Center Plaza (F057) is another play fountain with variable jets.
The most spectacular of the variable fountains is the Henry Wollman Bloch Memorial (F083) which I only showed as one step in 2006. It actually starts from nothing, cycles through a variable series, and ends with a very loud explosive pop shooting this high in the air.
Located in the courtyard of 1 Ward Parkway on the south side of Brush Creek, the Animals Fountain (F017) is facinating and again very difficult to photograph. The surrounding trees, shylights, and limited space all complicate finding a good position to avoid glaring highlights and distracting backgrounds.
Located in front of the Kansas City Life Insurance building the Kugel Floating Ball (F099) is absolutly facinating with what must be a ton of rock rolling on a thin film of water pumped from underneath. The waterfall fountain with the tropical follage is located in the Crown Center Hotel Lobby (F183). The outdoor waterfall fountain (F206) was a new construction in Overland Park, Kansas almost ouside the I-435 outer belt.
The two figures on the Loose Park Wall (F108) fountain were intended to have water pouring out of their bowls and down the backdrop wall although they were not functional when we visited. The clam and dragon are part of the Kansas City Cityhall (F047) water feature. When we visited the tower was still open to a visitor level allowing the great overview of the city shown on the Kansas City page.
The golden bronze Spirit of Freedom (F156) fountain is located on the north side of Brush Creek directly across from the Clifside (F085) fountain with the Bruce R Watkins Cultural Center in the background. Jumping off in another direction is the Hayatt Regency (F089) Crown Center Lobby fountain which I photographed primarily for the chandelier hanging above it.
To finally finish showing fountains is Brush Creek I (F037), two of the Penguins (F136) that are part of a larger water feature in front of several stores in the Country Club Plaza, and Stower's Gift of Life (F160) in the garden attached to the Stower's Institute for Medical Research.
I do have a lot more pictures of a lot more fountains but at this point even I am feeling induated. A lot more details are available in the next section and more photographs of the Kansas City Metro area and the Kansas City Zoo are available on these other pages.
A PDF file showing the detailed identification, location, and description of each fountain we identified can be downloaded from my website with this link. A slight caution is that not every fountain could be located for various reasons and they may have been moved or changed since we saw them. A map in the Garmin .gpx format showing the location of each fountain can also be downloaded with this link. The gpx file can be opened with many map programs including the free Garmin Basecamp available from their website here. Reiterating the Hunting Fountains in KC and City of Fountains Foundation websites also contain a wealth of additional details.
These links should work in the latest versions of ChromeⒸ, EdgeⒸ, FirefoxⒸ, SafairⒸ, and OperaⒸ, however they do tend to auto open the files. Typically there will be a download option or right-click to save the file. ChromeⒸ for example wanted to save the map as KC_FountainMap.gpx.txt which then requires a rename to get rid of the .txt extension. Welcome to the wonderful world of browsers. Microsoft is reportedly working on making them work in Internet ExplorerⒸ but don't hold your breath.
On our first pass through Kansas City in 2006 we were delighted to discover it is a city of fountains in both states. We were also extremely disturbed by how these fabulous assets were being treated and allowed to deteriorate. Like in a lot of places funds are short and we frequently question the priorities. In one park the fountain was shut down, but the flowers were wonderful. In another the flowers were, well forget it, but the fountain was working. Seems like there's not enough graft to go around. In preparing this page I was delighted to discover a new reference to Kansas City Fountains with a lot of excellent pictures of both the fountains and local sculptures. They only feature 32 fountains in the actual Kansas City of Missouri. In 2010 we spent a month here on a fountain hunt and located well over 200 in the metro area. I'll add some of the better examples when I get this site up to 2010.
The Children's Fountain is probably one of the most famous and well maintained. The Northland Fountain turned out to be one of the more difficult to access because it sits out on a point in a sea of roads, remember this is July and HOT. For kids in the heat the Northeast Concourse Fountain is a good splash park to cool off and I ended up driving by several times to get a picture when it was not crowded.
The Barry Allis Plaza Fountain is a long string of varying height jets with the discharge overflowing from the pool and rolling down the steps.
While the tree of life sculpture riding on the turtle's back was probably a fountain originally they now call it an artwork. I really included it because that is me sitting on the edge of the pool and a very detailed rendition of this world creation legend will end up on the Inniswood Garden Metro Park page in the future.
Within walking distance of the Barry Allis Fountain is the one at City Hall first looking across the pool at City Hall and then looking back from City Hall. City Hall has an observation deck available for an overview of the downtown but we were visiting on a Saturday to avoid traffic and it was closed.
On the edge of downtown is the headquarters of the Kansas City Star newspaper and the appropriately named Star Fountain again from two sides. The Muse of Missouri Fountain stands on a high pedestal in the intersection at 8th and Main.
A couple of blocks away at 10th and Main is what is now known as the William T. and Charlotte Kemper Memorial Fountain which is probably why my records just call it the 10th Street Fountain.
The Bloch Fountain in front of Science City at Union Station has a program of varying jet heights with the maximum shown here. As I remember the final part of the sequence was a high power shot from the central jet that reached about three times the height of the main jets. I was taking a series of the various levels and was not able to capture that exact moment that sounded like a firecracker. Starting to get further from downtown is the Eagle Scout Fountain.
Not too far away from the Eagle Scout Fountain is the Firefighter's Memorial Fountain. Sort of on the other side of town and slightly challenging to find is the Cliff Road Fountain that is a fountain and not the natural waterfall it appears. This is about all we had time to chase down on this visit and all of them are in the Kansas City, Missouri side area. Like I said above I'll be adding a lot more from both states when I get up to 2010 and our stay for a full month.