Chiming Fountain, Renaissance-style fountain in Washington Park, Portland, United States.
The Chiming Fountain is a cast iron fountain in Washington Park featuring two round bronze basins mounted on a narrow pedestal. The roughly 12-foot-tall structure is decorated with four gargoyle figures that frame the water flowing between the basins.
John "Hans" Staehli, a Swiss woodcarver who had immigrated to Portland, was commissioned by the city in 1891 for $400 and completed the fountain that year, making it the city's second piece of public art. In 1960 the city planned to remove it, but Mayor Terry Schrunk ordered a restoration after longshoreman Francis J. Murnane appealed. The Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! program rated its condition "treatment urgent" in February 1994, and its plumbing was later restored.
The name comes from the sound of water dripping from the upper basin; the fountain is also called Cupid's Fountain, the John Staehli Fountain, Portland's City Park Fountain and Washington Park Fountain. It appears in published biking and walking tours of Portland, and the 2010 guidebook Best Places: Portland names it a highlight of Washington Park.
The fountain stands at the junction of Southwest Sacajawea Boulevard and Southwest Sherwood Boulevard, in the main circle of Washington Park. It sits in an octagonal concrete base that once served as a retaining pool, so look for the low rim rather than a large basin. The plumbing works again after the 1994 Smithsonian assessment, but the flow is a drip from the upper basin, not a jet.
The boy figure on the central post was last photographed in 1912 with Willis McElroy's band at the nearby bandstand. Freezing water in the 1920s expanded and damaged it, and it was discarded by the 1940s. The pedestal's west side carries an unsigned inscription: "J. Staehli/Portland, Org./64 Second St."
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