Park’s fountain to be restored this winter

ST. PAUL >> IRVINE PARK

1970s-era reproduction badly deteriorated

This picture of the fountain in St. Paul’s Irvine Park was taken on Nov. 15, 2010, three days after someone drove into the well-loved structure, which dates to 1978. The fountain was restored by the city but by 2024 needed new paint and metal treatment. PIONEER PRESS

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By Frederick Melo

fmelo@pioneerpress.com

If you’re in Irvine Park and don’t see one of St. Paul’s most beloved fountains, don’t despair. The sculpted fountain was rolled away on Thursday to go to a better place for winter — a restoration studio — and will return by spring thaw after about $120,000 in needed tender loving care.

KCI Art Conservators will oversee metal restoration and project management for the effort, largely funded by the St. Paul Parks Conservancy and the Historic Irvine Park Association. The work will include about $20,000 of electrical upgrades to get the fountain lights working again, said conservancy executive director C. Michael-jon Pease. Other treatments will address active corrosion, repair structural damage, replace paint coatings and improve the surface appearance

“The fountain will look beautiful and be in stable condition after treatment,” Pease said.

The work is being done in Minnesota by KCI and Industrial Painting Specialists of Hugo, with engineering assessments by Braun Intertec and Mattson, Macdonald, Young. Rocket Crane of New Hope handed the de-installation and transport.

The Historic Irvine Park Association helped commission the current fountain from the Robinson Iron Co. of Alexandria, Ala., in 1978-79. The sizable structure survived a car crash in 2010, but the city repaired it with new metal and paint work that was not suited to Minnesota winters, according to Pease.

The original ornate cast iron fountain that was installed in the park in 1881 had been removed by 1927.

Through the “Irvine Park Campaign,” the Historic Irvine Park Association has also in recent months launched a park concert series featuring musicians from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Walker West and Taiko Arts, completed a forestry plan with the city, planted new trees and restored the park gazebo through fundraising and donated work hours.

After raising $122,500 in funds to date toward the campaign, the association hopes to fundraise another $50,000 from private grants and individual donations. The hope is to replace park light posts and hardscape features by 2027.

The Irvine Park fountain isn’t the only St. Paul installation with brighter days ahead, so to speak.

Public Art St. Paul announced on Thursday that it had added a large, newly restored bronze sculpture — “Tug O’ War” by Glenna Goodacre, crafted in 1987 — to its growing collection in the city’s Western Sculpture Park on Marion Street.

The statue of children playing tug of war had been located at Ecolab’s global headquarters downtown, but had weathered over the years and was in need of restoration. It was donated to Public Art St. Paul, treated by Laura Kubick of KCI Conservation and “meticulously restored … to a beautiful and striking condition,” according to a statement issued Thursday by the nonprofit.