The Haller Fountain
The Haller Fountain in downtown Port Townsend features a cast bronze figure pouring water from an urn. The woman stands on a ornate base with cherubs and dolphins also spouting water. The figure in this bronze fountain has been replaced three times. Time, water and vandals are hard on public art! The original fountain statue was of poor quality metal that did not last well.
The original for this figure, by an unknown artist, was based on the 1490s painting “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli. The artist displayed the statue at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, aka the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois. The Venus statue was shown in the German Pavilion. That statue was sold to J.L. Mott Foundry of New York, and casts could be ordered from their catalog with a choice of various bases.
Theodore Haller purchased the original figure from the Mott Foundry, and gifted the fountain to the City of Port Townsend in 1906 . Although the original statue was intended as a statue of Venus, our fountain figure is often referred to as Galatea. It seems that the donor’s father, Granville Haller, read a poem about the Greek sea nymph at the dedication of the gift to the City. Since then the figure has been known as Galatea. And the whole is also referred to as the Haller Fountain, after the donor. The first repair of the statue modified the original figure. However Port Townsend artists Mark Twain Stevenson and David Eisenhower created a replica of the first statue in 1992 after vandals destroyed the second statue.
In 2014 artist Sara Ybarra Lopez wrote and published a book, “Galatea: Heart of Port Townsend”. Sara included photos, art, and thoughts about the Haller Fountain by local residents. You can read more about the book in a Leader article by Jan Haliday. You may still be able to buy or view her book at the Jefferson Historical Society Museum of Art & History, at 540 Water Street.
I used part of a old photo that I took of the Haller Fountain to create the recent collage displayed on the right. I added “bubbles” cut from some of my own prints. Galatea sometimes takes a bubble bath when pranksters add soap to the fountain water! I took several photos of the fountain in order to contribute art to Sara’s book.