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21 JULY 1906 · DISMANTLED 1941 · REDEDICATED 2019
The gift: John M. Studebaker had seen an elaborate cast-iron fountain at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, and he commissioned one like it — electrified — as a gift to the city. The Studebaker Electric Fountain, twenty-eight feet high, was unveiled in Howard Park on 21 July 1906. In 1941 it was dismantled and thought melted for scrap; its top third was rescued by Mary and John Seiler and kept. In 2009 their descendants donated the surviving pieces to The History Museum, and after a community restoration campaign the fountain was rededicated in Leeper Park in 2019 — one gift, given twice, a century apart, the second time by the family that had saved it from the scrapyard.
Sources:
- The Major Donations section of this history — the fountain's whole course: the 1876 Centennial fountain as its model, the 21 July 1906 unveiling in Howard Park, the 1941 dismantling, the Seilers' rescue of the top third, the 2009 donation to The History Museum, and the 2019 rededication in Leeper Park.