Ward Parkway’s Meyer Circle Fountain sits dry for months as city addresses damage

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - One of Kansas City’s most iconic fountains has sat dry for the summer, leaving many nearby residents and drivers wondering what’s going on.

According to Kansas City’s Parks & Recreation, the Meyer Circle Fountain at Ward Parkway needs several repairs.

“We noticed when we were getting the fountains ready this year that it had some cracks and eventually the top bowl broke,” said Chris Cotten, the Parks & Recreation Director. “The original statue is made out of marble, and the replacements are made out of marble, so unfortunately, these things happen.”

The statue, which weighs 16,000 pounds, dates back to the 1700s, where it stood for 300 years in a Venetian square. It was brought over from Italy in the 1920s.

“It’s been worked on and parts have been replaced several times over the years,” Cotten said. “There was vandalism in the 1940s of pretty significant proportions. We drained it in a drought, and someone stole all the plumbing. And then in the 1960s, some kids were playing cowboy and lassoed the figures and pulled them down and shattered them.”

Cotten said they are looking at all options to get the fountain running again.

“What we are looking at right now, we’re pretty certain that we can’t repair the bowl that will last,” Cotten said. “There’s a lot of freeze-thaw cycles that have happened with it. “We want to make sure it stays for the longevity of the system, and we want to get it repaired the right way.”

Jake Falcon can see the fountain from his house; it’s a reason he bought the house.

“We are the city of fountains, and so there’s nothing better than driving through Kansas City and seeing all the fountains thriving and people around them,” Falcon said.

Falcon said at first, he thought they just drained it for routine maintenance.

“We noticed that the fountain has been off for most of the summer, and so I actually called the city and they directed me to a great engineer who said they were working to fix it,” Falcon said.

While there is no timeline as to when it’ll be repaired, Falcon said he’s just thankful the city is on it.

“We want to do it right, we don’t just want to put a band-aid on it and try to appease people. We want to preserve the history and we want it to last for another hundred years,” Cotten said.