Organizers launch final fundraising push for Gardiner fountain

Jeff Wells walks his dog Monday past “The Lady and the Birds” statue and the fountain named on behalf of Gardiner native Gideon S. Palmer, a Civil War regimental surgeon and, later, director of Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., at Gardiner Common. Organizers have raised about $150,000 needed to restore the monument, and are seeking additional donations to cover inflation-related cost increases and to start a maintenance fund for the fountain’s future care. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

GARDINER — As fundraising to restore the historic fountain at Gardiner Common nears its end, organizers are hoping people will be willing to give a little more.

The goal is to have enough money to replace the fountain’s pump, sump, wiring and concrete basin, which have existed for decades longer than “The Lady and the Birds,” the statue that was installed at the fountain’s center in 1977.

“Frankly, if you ask people to estimate a fountain repair, they go, ‘What?'” said Robert Abbey, who has been leading efforts to bring the fountain back to regular use.

The estimate for completing the work has been a moving target in the months since fundraising began in earnest, and the total cost is not likely to be known until the bidding process expected in early 2023 is complete.

For now, the expected cost is about $150,000, an amount that has already been raised through a combination of private donations from Gardiner companies and residents and from grants, including a $25,000 award earlier this year from the Davis Family Foundation, based in Yarmouth.

Organizers are looking to raise an additional sum to cover inflation-related cost increases and seed a maintenance fund for the fountain’s future care.

“We’re very comfortable where the fundraising is, but we also know that if we have any funds residually, we’ll dedicate that to keeping (the fountain) going,” Abbey said.

Abbey and others are hoping to capitalize on Giving Tuesday — the Tuesday after Thanksgiving that is dedicated to supporting local initiatives and nonprofit organizations — to cap their efforts.

“People love that fountain,” Gardiner Mayor Patricia Hart said. “It’s just so pretty, and it just makes that park very special. Very few communities have a fountain on a common like that. It’s a very peaceful feature.”

Early on, the Gardiner Rotary Club had agreed to take on the fundraising. At the time, Rusty Greenleaf was wrapping up his term as Rotary president, and he continues to be involved.

Early estimates pegged the cost at between $75,000 and $100,000, Greenleaf said.

Peter and Sandra Prescott and Team EJP have issued a donation match challenge to double the impact of donations of any size made as the fundraising efforts conclude.

Organizers are also offering premiums for larger gifts. Those who give $250 or more are to receive a commemorative coin, with an image of the fountain on one side and the Gardiner Common gazebo on the other side.

Those who give $2,000 are to receive an 8-by-10-inch print of a Ken Carlson watercolor of “The Lady and the Birds,” made by graphic artist Alan Claude, whose gallery is on Water Street.

Donors of $2,500 or more are to receive the print framed by Claude.

The current fountain is the result of a public art initiative tied to the U.S. bicentennial. Gardiner was one of three cities to be awarded a Maine State Commission on the Arts grant to contract for a contemporary, freestanding work of art to be installed at a publicly accessible and visible site.

An inscription beneath “The Lady and the Birds” statue on the fountain named for Gardiner native Gideon S. Palmer, a Civil War regimental surgeon and, later, director of Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., at Gardiner Common. Organizers have raised about $150,000 needed to restore the monument, and are seeking additional donations to cover inflation-related cost increases and to start a maintenance fund for the fountain’s future care. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

After a search, Gardiner’s Bicentennial Committee settled on “The Lady and the Birds,” by Norman Therrien of Boothbay Harbor. It replaced the cone of rocks that replaced the original fountain, a depiction of Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, holding a trident. The metal fountain, along with cannons on display at Gardiner Common, were donated during World War II to the war effort.

That original fountain was given to the city by Susan Palmer in 1896 in memory of her husband, Gideon S. Palmer, a Gardiner native. After a life marked by public service in Maine, Palmer enlisted as a volunteer regimental surgeon in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.

Palmer served on the staff of Gen. O.O. Howard, a native of Leeds, who later asked Palmer to serve on the faculty of Howard University, the private, historically Black research university that was founded in 1867. Palmer served as faculty dean there for many years.

Before his death in 1891, Palmer was also the surgeon in charge of the Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., which provided medical care to formerly enslaved people and was the teaching hospital for the Howard University Medical School.

In recent years, the fountain’s operation has been intermittent, and volunteers have worked out a schedule to clear the basin of debris and for other maintenance.

“The Lady and the Birds” statue atop the fountain named for Gardiner native Gideon S. Palmer, a Civil War regimental surgeon and, later, director of Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., at Gardiner Common. Organizers have raised about $150,000 needed to restore the monument, and are seeking additional donations to cover inflation-related cost increases and to start a maintenance fund for the fountain’s future care. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

The city’s Fountain Committee is now working with Tom Farmer, the landscape architect behind the recent redesign of Gardiner’s McKay Park, to develop a recommendation, including costs.

“We want to keep the fountain as original as we can,” Greenleaf said. “We want people to be able to come and sit, but some people want a wooden bench and some people want a granite bench.”

The project is expected to be completed by next summer.

For those interested in giving, Gardiner Main Street has a link on its website — www.gardinermainstreet.org/fountain — for online donations, although the fundraising figures are not updated.

Checks, payable to City of Gardiner, may be dropped off at Gardiner City Hall, 6 Church St., or mailed to the Gardiner Rotary Club, P.O. Box 365, Gardiner, ME 04345.