Group urges city council to restore Waverley Park fountain, a Thunder Bay 'treasure'

A group of Thunder Bay residents is calling on council to fund the restoration of a historic north-side water fountain.

The Coalition for Waverley Park is scheduled to make a deputation to councillors on Monday, requesting the city fund the restoration of the Hogarth Fountain, located near the park's Cenotaph.

The fountain itself was designed by Scottish architect Robert Adam, and built in 1790.

In 1964, it was transported to its current location from England, a gift from Madge Hogarth in memory of her husband, Maj.-Gen. Donald McDonald Hogarth.

"It was quite a feat, because the fountain itself weighs 10 tonnes," coalition president Keith Nymark said. "You can imagine the the transportation might have been a little challenging."

However, the fountain's water supply was shut off in 2018, and it has not operated since; it's currently enclosed by a fence to prevent vandalism.

'Tender loving care' needed

"It is actually deteriorating," Nymark said. "The liner has pulled away from the side, so even if the fountain was turned on the water would leak from it."

"Underneath it, the whole mechanism that's necessary to turn the water on, turn it off, drain the fountain, is antiquated," he said. "The walls around the fountain are cracking, the grouting is falling out of it. It needs some tender loving care."

Nymark said the coalition will ask council to set aside funding to have the fountain restored. More than that, however, the coalition wants the city to look at redeveloping the area around the fountain itself.

"The Cenotaph may need some work or levelling," he said. "There's also a need for displaying 16 memorial plaques that the [Thunder Bay Military Museum] has gathered over the years from various businesses."

"They would like to have those displayed, so we're asking for City Council to do up the plan."

A high-level plan was developed several years ago, said Werner Schwar, the city's supervisor of parks and open space planning.

"In 2015, we had done a little bit of an update to the Waverley Park concept plan that involves looking at the area around the fountain a bit more holistically in terms of how the Cenotaph could be integrated to a fountain that the area was improved around," he said. "That was really a high-level concept plan."

Schwar said a company that specializes in fountain repair and restoration was brought in in 2018 or 2019 to look at the Waverley Park fountain.

"We were having issues with the water in the fountain, and they did a bit of an analysis," he said. "They proposed some recommendations and cost budget at that time, and that's really where it stayed."

Schwar said, at the time, restoring the fountain was estimated to cost about $250,000.

Challenging restoration

However, there are some unique challenges associated with work on the Waverley Park fountain.

For example, to turn the water on or off, someone needs to "contort themselves" to enter a confined space underneath the fountain itself; confined space training is required to access the area, Schwar said.

"The drainage system for the fountain is outdated," he said. "It's still old wood stave piping that goes out of that area."

"Our water supply is up the hill close to the PACI. So really the whole water supply, the drainage supply, the whole mechanical system of the fountain has to be replaced pretty much from scratch, so that's really one of the big costs."

The fountain's age adds a complication, as well.

"There for sure aren't that many people that do that kind of work," Schwar said. "I believe the last time it was restored was in 2000-ish, and that was a specialty company from Burlington and that did that."

"There isn't a lot of general expertise," he said. "That also makes the cost go higher too."

Nymark said the coalition would be willing help with fundraising.

"As citizens, we should value our historical artifacts," he said. "This fountain was built in 1790. It's a treasure."

"It shouldn't be allowed to deteriorate."