Gore Park the way it should be
Restored fountain ready to enchant downtown again
April 30, 2010
Paul Wilson
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/761031
As dawn breaks Saturday, a flatbed bearing precious cargo will roll into downtown Hamilton.
A work crew and 40-ton crane will toil all day. And when they're done, the beloved Gore Park fountain will be back where it belongs.
It's been absent -- out of the country, in fact -- for half a year.
You may recall that it is a replica of the first one, which was installed in Gore Park 150 years ago.
Hamilton had just built its first pumphouse, still out there on Woodward Avenue. It started bringing in a million gallons of water a day from the lake, so there was plenty to power a fountain.
For a century that Victorian showpiece anchored downtown Hamilton. People met at it, sat by it, fell under its spell.
But in 1959 the city knocked it down, said it was old and worn out. In its place, they installed three water-filled saucers, a gift from some well-intentioned Kinsmen. But the new fountain device looked like something from the Jetsons. Most hated it.
In the summer of 1960, a cheque for $200 arrived at this newsroom, made out to The Spectator in trust, "for the rehabilitation of the former Gore fountain only.
"I don't want this fund for those squirts there now," said the donor. "My garden hose does a better job than they do ... Hamilton has always been noted as the city with the lovely fountain."
Decades passed. Then Dennis Missett of the Head-of-the-Lake Historical Society came up with the idea of bringing the fountain back for Hamilton's 150th birthday, which was in 1996.
The Society spearheaded a $600,000 fundraising campaign and the job was done. The late and legendary foundry king Archie Mccoy built the fountain. And the top bowl and spire were saved from the original.
There was a ceremony and some predicted the fountain would mark the rebirth of downtown.
A lot to ask, even of a graceful 10-tonne cast-iron structure. But people have enjoyed that fountain. They've even thrown lots of money in it, made many a wish.
And the fountain has ended up on banners. It is the symbol of the core.
But six years ago, Therese Charbonneau noticed something disturbing. She is the city's senior conservator and watches our monuments with a careful eye. And she saw that the replacement fountain was already in trouble. She saw rust.
She brought in a consultant and the problem was clear. Whatever coating had been applied to that raw cast iron before the painting process was just not providing the protection it should.
It was pointless to paint the fountain again. New corrosion would just keep popping it off.
Restoration would be a specialized job. Only one bid was received, but it was from a fully qualified restoration outfit in Oberlin, Ohio, called McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory. Their price, $114,000.
So last November, the fountain was disassembled and hauled over the border.
It's a job of precision. For instance, the city's consultant advised it was important this time that the protective coating be applied fast after the iron was stripped.
So the city specified the coating had to go on within 24 hours, as long as the relative humidity remained below 50 per cent.
McKay Lodge then provided hourly measurements of the humidity in the time before application of the coating -- a durable product designed for aerospace and military purposes. It should be good for 25 years.
This week they loaded the fountain pieces back on the flatbed. The lower bowl has eight sections, each weighing nearly 400 kilograms.
At this moment, the fountain is at a crane company in Mississauga, where they're doing a partial assembly before tomorrow morning's trip.
It could take all weekend to bolt and seal the fountain back together. On Monday, Joe the plumber -- not the infamous political one from Ohio, but a talented local one, last name Laratta -- will try some test spurts.
And at 11 a.m. next Saturday, May 8, there will be a celebration to mark the fountain's return and "150 years of Municipal Drinking Water in Hamilton."
All those years ago, when the city was debating that first fountain, a writer for the Hamilton Times made a wise observation:
"To erect a public fountain is a work of charity and mercy, a moral and virtuous act. It cannot be misapplied, it can never become obsolete."
Prev
Linear Mode
