For the past few weeks, the water fountain outside of the Hillsdale court house has been shrouded by a brightly colored orange fence to protect its undergoing replacement.
The decision to replace the fountain was made in response to leakage discovered in late May.
“The fountain was losing about a thousand gallons of water per day,” Courthouse Facility Director Randy Finley said. “Once that was discovered, the commissioner decided that it should be replaced, so that is the one you see out front right now.”
The new fountain is designed to be an exact replica of the old one.
“It looks just like the old one,” Finley said, “only it’s been set at a different angle to improve visibility from the street.”
The original court house fountain was built 31 years ago as a beautification project using a Michigan Council for the Arts grant and funds from a citizen-run scrap iron drive.
“We were able to commission a sculptor from Adrian to design the fountain,” said Ellenor Leutheusser, chairwoman of Keep Michigan Beautiful. “In that way, we kept it all pretty local.”
According to Leutheuser, each aspect of the fountain is intended to commemorate a different characteristic of Hillsdale.
“The circle in the center represents the forest, the center is for the American Indian population, and the bottom represents Hillsdale’s hilly terrain,” she said.
Another important aspect includes the five jets of water on each side of the fountain, which are meant to symbolize the five rivers—The St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Grand, Maumee, and Raisin—that run out of Hillsdale and into Lakes Michigan and Erie, according to Leutheuser, as well as local historian and author Dan Bischer.
An article from the Hillsdale Daily News published a day after the fountain’s dedication ceremony on Oct. 2, 1981, reported the positivity with which Hillsdale received the new fountain, praising it as a symbol of the towns people’s “friendliness and willingness to do things for themselves.”
The Courthouse fountain is not to be confused with the proposed fountain for City Hall, which will be installed using private contracting sometime in the near future.
Kathy Newall, TIFA board member and committee chair for beautification projects, said that this fountain will not have a modern design, because it is supposed to return City Hall closer to its original blueprints from the 1830s.
