Drake Fountain

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Drake Fountain, 1893

Richard Henry Park

East 92^nd Street at South Chicago and Exchange Avenues

            Believed to be the first statue in Chicago to commemorate Christopher Columbus, this monument was dedicated in December 1892, marking the 400^th anniversary of the explorers’ voyage to the Americas.  The 7 ½ foot bronze figure is of Columbus as a young man with globe in hand. The fountain is inspired by Gothic architecture and a small granite columns and curving buttresses rise up 33 feet to the pointed spire on top.

            Originally located downtown near City Hall, the fountain dispensed into four granite basins what is still listed on the monument: ice water. A surviving example of Victorian-era public drinking fountains, it was hoped at the time that it would be an alternative to nearby saloons. The fountain was moved twice to different downtown locations as the city razed buildings and redirected the flow of traffic. In 1909, Southeast Chicago residents complained about the lack of public art in their part of town and were able to get the fountain move to the location where it still stands. It was designated a Chicago landmark in 2004.

            The fountain was a gift to the city from hotelier John B. Drake, who was part owner of the Tremont Hotel and Grand Pacific Hotel. His sons were developers and proprietors of the Blackstone Hotel and Drake Hotel, both still in existence on Michigan Avenue. Artist Richard Henry Park (1832-1902)  is best known for his Actor’s Monument to Edgar Allen Poe in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He is also known as the sculptor of a silver statue for Montana’s exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Other works in Chicago include Benjamin Franklin in Lincoln Park and the Charles J. Hull Monument in Rosehill Cemetery. 

Other works that commemorate Christopher Columbus: 

• Christopher Columbus 
• Christopher Columbus and Fountain

Harris Bank Fountain

Harris Bank Fountain, 1975

Russell Secrest

In the plaza of the BMO Harris Bank Building

111 West Monroe Street 

This piece was commissioned by Harris Bank (now BMO Harris Bank) for the plaza on Monroe and LaSalle Streets.  The original 20-story brick bank building located at 119 West Monroe was completed in 1911. In 1960, another tower was added to the east and, in 1974, a 38-story tower was built to the west facing LaSalle Street. The taller tower was set back from Monroe Street to allow for a plaza with a small fountain.  Secrest, born in Muncie, Indiana, sculpted the fountain in a Danish modern style with interconnected blue-green bronze pedestals that extend 6 ½ feet in height. Water flows from seven jets down to the 22-foot diameter basin. William F. Murray, chairman of the bank, and Mayor Richard J. Daley attended the unveiling on July 9, 1975.

Francis M. Drexel Memorial Fountain

Francis M. Drexel Memorial Fountain, 1881-82

Henry Manger

Drexel Square

Drexel Boulevard and 51^st Street (Hyde Park Boulevard)

            The oldest public sculpture in Chicago, the figure at the top of this elaborate fountain represents Francis M. Drexel (1792-1863), Austrian-born banker, real estate speculator and founder of brokerage house Drexel and Company, based in Philadelphia. Although Drexel did not live in Chicago, he owned land in the city and donated a portion to be used as a boulevard bearing his name. Drexel’s two sons, Francis A. and Anthony J. Drexel, commissioned Henry Manger, a Philadelphia sculptor from Germany, to create this $40,000 bronze and granite monument. The four bronze bas-relief panels feature the god of oceans, Neptune, riding a dolphin, as well as other figures representing lakes, rivers and springs. In 1888, the Drexel brothers funded the addition of jets to allow water to run continuously in the fountain. 

          Following a series of restorations over the decades, the fountain suffered neglect and was inoperable until the early 2000s, when the Chicago Department of Transportation and Public Building Department performed the repairs necessary to allow the water to flow again.

Charles J. Hull Monument

Charles J. Hull Monument, 1891

Richard Henry Park

Rosehill Cemetery

5800 North Ravenswood Avenue, north of main entrance drive

            Charles J. Hull (1820-1889) was a real estate developer who is, perhaps, best known today for his house, an Italianate homestead built in 1856 near present day South Halsted and Polk Streets. The year of Hull’s death, in 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr launched a “settlement house” modeled upon Toynbee Hall in East London. Charles J. Hull left his entire estate to his cousin, Helen Culver, who at first was skeptical of the project but she soon realized the benefit of the work of Starr and Addams and bequeathed them the house. Even though Addams and Starr originally named their settlement Chicago Toynbee Hall, the name "Hull" House stuck. Many other buildings were added to the complex over the years but nearly all were demolished to make way for the construction of the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle campus during the 1960s.

            Artist Richard Henry Park modeled the attire for the bearded bronze seated figure after a replica of Hull’s own suit and boots, provided by Jane Addams. Park’s careful attention to period clothing is apparent also in his monument to Benjamin Franklin in Lincoln Park.

Other works: 

• Drake Fountain

Victory Monument, World War I Black Soldiers’ Memorial

Victory Monument, World War I Black Soldiers’ Memorial, 1927, 1936

Leonard Crunelle

East 35^th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive

            When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the Army had a policy of racial segregation and African-American soldiers were required to serve in all-black regiments, typically under the command of white officers. The National Guard also had separate African-American units and, during the Great War, they were called up. Although the United States had no intention of using the black soldiers in combat, when French allies were in need of manpower they were happy to use them. This monument honors the 370^th infantry of the 93^rd Division, one of the units that assisted the French and included soldiers from Illinois. This group had the distinction of being the last regiment pursuing the retreating German forces in the Aisne-Marne region before the armistice on November 11, 1918.

            The sculptor, Leonard Crunelle, was well known in Chicago, having served as assistant to Lorado Taft and contributed the Fountain Figures and monument to Richard Oglesby to the city’s public art during the 1910s. 
          On an interesting note, he was born in the town of Lens, France, which fell under German control during the Great War. At the unveiling on Armistice Day in 1928, the monument consisted only of the white granite column with relief panels. The striding “doughboy,” also created by Crunelle, was added in 1936.

            One of the four bronze panels provides an honor roll of the dead, while the other three features figures: one is a bare-chested African-American soldier standing behind an eagle, the second is a classically-draped African-American woman representing “motherhood,” and the third features the allegorical figure “Columbia,” generally understood as the personification of the United States before “Lady Liberty” became more popular. “Columbia” holds a tablet listing the regiment’s battles. 

Other works:

• George Washington—Robert Morris—Haym Salomon Monument

Greene Vardiman Black

Greene Vardiman Black, 1918

Frederick Cleveland Hibbard

Lincoln Park

North of East North Avenue at North Astor Street

This statue honors the man considered the "Father of Modern Dentistry," Greene Vardiman Black (1836–1915). In fact, it is documented that, "Few can have influenced the development of their professions so markedly as did G.V. Black in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth." Raised near Winchester, Illinois, invention of the dental drill and use of nitrous oxide during tooth extraction are only two of Black's achievements. He later became a Professor of Pathology at the Chicago College of Dental Surgery (which became the Loyola University School of Dentistry) and, in 1897, was the first Dean of Northwestern University's dental school. Soon after his death, the National Dental Association commissioned sculptor Frederick Cleveland Hibbard (1881–1950) to create this bronze figure mounted on a limestone bench-like base. 
More than fifteen hundred members of that association attended the monument's unveiling ceremonies. Hibbard, who studied under renowned sculptor Lorado Taft, created more than 70 works throughout the United States. His other Chicago pieces include the Eagle Fountains in Grant Park, Carter Harrison Monument in Union Park, Wallach Fountain in Burnham Park and Garden Figure in the Lincoln Park Conservatory.