CITY PARK’S ELECTRIC FOUNTAIN RETURNS AS A DENVER SHOWPIECE

Cooperation and collaboration key to resurrecting a Denver treasure

Mayor John Hickenlooper, joined by Elected and City Officials, will unveil the newly re-constructed, fully-functional City Park Electric Fountain on Tuesday, Aug. 19. The Electric Fountain is now capable of producing the incredible light and water shows that made it a Denver destination years ago. The evening celebration begins at 7:30 p.m. and will include music by the Denver Municipal Band and free ice cream.

The Electric Fountain, which was originally constructed in 1908 for the Democratic National Convention, has not been fully operational for decades. The Fountain was a centerpiece of Denver life, drawing literally thousands of visitors to watch its amazing water and light shows while listening to concerts in City Park. Current City and community leaders wanted to restore the glory days of the Electric Fountain for all to once again enjoy. The recent Montclair Storm Drainage Project taking place in City Park made initial work on the Fountain’s structure and infrastructure possible.

“This is a wonderful case of history repeating itself to our great benefit,” Mayor Hickenlooper said. “This fountain will amaze and delight City Park visitors for years and years, just as Frederic Darlington’s original fountain did.  Tonight’s dedication links the vision of Darlington and Mayor Speer with that of the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission, the Colorado Historical Society, Denver Parks and Recreation, Denver Public Works, Denver Water and other partners who realized the value of recreating this remarkable community landmark.”

“During the process of evaluating the condition of the original 1908 fountain, it was determined that restoration of the fountain would not be a financially advisable,” said Scott Robson, Acting Manager for Denver Parks and Recreation. “Instead, plans were developed to demolish the original fountain and construct a completely new Electric Fountain, duplicating the appearance of the fountain structure in the lake, the famous water features and the colored lighting effects.”

With permission from the Landmark Preservation Commission, Denver Public Works demolished the old concrete fountain vault in order to construct a sound, fully-functional replacement utilizing current technology and materials that will sustain the Fountain into the future. The portion of the Fountain visible above the water is virtually identical to the original structure.  After the vault and deck of the Fountain were completely restored in April of 2007, the final piece of the project was to add the working labyrinth of plumbing and nozzles, complete with multi-hue colored lights for fountain show performances.

This remaining work demanded the installation of an enormous amount of complex plumbing, electrical, mechanical and computer features to create numerous geysers and light displays in a synchronized fashion. The majority of the work was done thanks to the tremendous synergy between Denver Public Works and Parks & Recreation, with Parks supplying the knowledge and Public Works providing the facilities to complete the project and bring the Electric Fountain back to life. The Colorado Historical Society, Denver Water and other independent contractors also contributed to the completion of this historically significant Denver landmark.

“I am thrilled that we can make the return of the Electric Fountain the crowning event for all the work we have done in City Park for the past few years." said Guillermo “Bill” Vidal, Manager of Public Works. “I am particularly proud of the employees from Public Works and Parks whose combined expertise and creativity has brought the Electric Fountain back to life in such a grand display."

Denver Municipal Band will be on-hand to help celebrate the illumination of the fountain. They will play a variety of tunes, including the historically significant “Denver Auditorium March” by Freda Richter (originally written in 1908 for the Denver Auditorium Theater, which was built for the DNC 100 years ago) and “Pickles and Peppers” by Sheperd, which was the campaign theme song of William Jennings Bryan, the 1908 democratic presidential nominee.

Parsons Construction will underwrite the ice cream for the event and Disguises in Lakewood, Colo. generously donated several period costumes for the evening.

Today’s Electric Fountain proudly uses modern technology, including energy-saving LED lights, and will be around for future generations to enjoy. After its initial illumination on Aug. 19, 2008, the fountain will be on every evening with performances scheduled at the top of each hour between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

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Background information:

The original fountain was the result of a fortuitous nexus of events and people.  Mayor Robert Speer was working on his City Beautiful plan.  The Democratic National Convention was coming to town in the summer of 1908 and Frederic W. Darlington had built a reputation of creating fountains with colored lighting (receiving the first patent for his work in 1899) and water shows, pre-dating the Disney and Las Vegas era of show fountains by well over sixty years.

Denver is the only city with a Darlington Electric Fountain to tackle the extremely daunting task of creating a historically accurate but modern version of his pioneering work.  Of the many Darlington fountains built around the world, the original Electric Fountain in City Park was the last known surviving, relatively intact example of his work when it was demolished in late 2006.

On May 30, 2008, Denver marked the 100th anniversary of the original dedication of Darlington’s Electric Fountain No. 33 in City Park with a demonstration of the progress in the reconstruction of the fountain.

The new Electric Fountain features the 12 water display effects of the original fountain but there are now three times as many automatic valves to give dramatic new flexibility in controlling the displays.

City Park Fast Facts:

    * 370: Total acreage of the park
    * 3: manufactured bodies of water located in City Park
          o Ferril Lake (1896)
          o Duck Lake (1891)
          o Little Lake (1896)
    * 2: Equipped playgrounds
    * 14: Tennis courts
    * 5: Baseball Fields
    * 6: Soccer Fields
    * 1: Lacrosse Field
    * 4: Group picnic areas with tables