Bagley Memorial Fountain

John Judson Bagley was governor of Michigan from 1873 to 1877. All of his life was active in education, business, and politics. He died in 1881 and in his will provided several thousand dollars for the construction of the Bagley Memorial Fountain. The will stated that the fountain would quench the thirst of Detroiters with 'water cold and pure as the coldest mountain stream.' However, the actual cost of the fountain was nearly twice that provided for by the bequest.

The architect chosen to design the fountain was Henry Hobson Richardson, renowned for his Byzantine-Romanesque style. Richardson was born on a plantation in Louisiana on September 29, 1838. He studied at Harvard and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He returned to the United States after the Civil War and settled in New York.

Richardson believed that one should forget traditional architecture and create anew. He began chiefly as an ecclesiastical architect, winning fame with Trinity Church, Boston. He then turned to houses, libraries, and public and commercial buildings. The list of Richardson's works is too long to state, but it includes structures in Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, and Cincinnati.

Richardson set an architectural fashion that dominated the eastern states from 1880 to the Chicago World's Fair. He died April 27, 1886. The Bagley Memorial Fountain was unveiled May 30, 1887, in its original location in a space south of the city hall. In September, 1925, the Common Council of Detroit authorized the Bagley Fountain to be moved to its present site.

This unique fountain, designed by an internationally renowned architect and given to the citizens of Detroit by a former governor of Michigan, has been providing Detroiters with respite from thirst for nearly eighty-four years.

The John J. Bagley Memorial Fountain stands in an area south of Campus Martius where Woodward Avenue widens to join Michigan Avenue and Monroe. It is eighteen feet high and is constructed entirely of white Worcester. It is an adaptation of a small ciborium in St.

Mark's Cathedral, Venice. In contrast to the smooth pyramidal canopy, the arch spandrels and the column capitals are highly embellished with crisp foliate carvings. In the center of the fountain are four lion heads through which water was once discharged. To cool the water, thousands of pounds of ice were deposited in the base cover coils of pipe through which the water passed.

Two of the heads expelled water of normal temperature and the other two expelled cold water. The fountain was to be in use from April through November. There is now a water fountain spout. There are four steps surrounding the base.

At each corner of the base of the steps is an urn about three feet in height. The circumference around the base of the steps is approximately eighteen feet. The fountain was moved from its original location to its present site in 1925.