The proposed fountain would sit in a 20-foot pool at Gale Park. (Photograph courtesy of Specialty Fountain and Waterscape of Duluth, Ga.)
Restoring the once-upon-a-time grandeur of the fountain at Gale Park is the aim of the park’s neighbors.
Members of the Gale Park Neighborhood Association say they’ll never be able to replace the park’s original and ornate cast iron fountain. However, they have found a modern one that may restore a touch of class to the park that holds various war memorials. Association Co-Chair Kathleen Fitts explains.
“The beautiful and elaborate Carleton Fountain was replaced with a pile of rocks, held together by concrete, with a firehose in the middle, and it’s fun when it works, but it doesn’t work all that often.”
She says the current fountain’s basin leaks and, despite resurfacing, continues to falter. When the water runs out, the pump fails and its motor burns out.
Gale Park Neighborhood Association members Kathleen Fitts and Christine Sheehan. (WHAV News photograph.)
Fitts, who appeared with Co-Chair Christine Sheehan and Treasurer Joan Cranton, says the group has received a preliminary $44,000 estimate to install a 20-foot round pool with a three-tier Savona fountain at the Kenoza Avenue and Mill Street site. While such a project is subject to soliciting formal bids, Fitts adds, the neighborhood group will help with private fundraising. Council Vice President Thomas J. Sullivan said the city may be able to help.
“I don’t know that we’ll make it happen in this summer season, but I did notice the fountain is struggling again—sometimes it’s on, sometimes it’s off,” Sullivan said.
The original Carleton fountain. (Photograph courtesy of the Haverhill Public Library.)
Sullivan and Councilor Joseph J. Bevilacqua, who have both been known to volunteer at the park, motioned to send the idea to the Council’s Public Property and Natural Resources Committee.
Members of the Gale Park association have cared for the park for more than 20 years, conducting fall and spring cleanups and buying Christmas lights. The city helps with labor.
The original fountain was donated in 1892 by former Haverhill Mayor James Hazen Carleton.