It has been 46 years since the landmark Maids of the Mist fountain located in Lake Bluff Park in St. Joseph has undergone restoration and renovation efforts. If all goes according to plan the ladies and cherubs adorning the fountain and its infrastructure could get a full makeover by the end of the summer of 2021.
St. Joseph City Commissioners are being asked tonight by the city’s Deputy Director of Parks & Grounds, Greg Grothous, to approve his application for a capital improvement grant to the Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs to accomplish that renovation.
The landmark fountain was created in 1872-73 by the J.W. Fiske Iron Works in New York for presentation at the Inter State Industrial Exposition building at the 1872 World’s Fair in Chicago.
The owner of the Whitcomb Hotel, located across the street from the fountain, purchased it for $500 and had it moved to St. Joseph in 1892, a pretty decent bargain inasmuch as it cost $5,000 to create.
The fountain was completely restored and back in full glory by the spring of 1974 by the City of St. Joseph City and the Fort Miami Heritage Society.
Renovation money was put into the 2019-2020 city budget, and last year an assessment report from the McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory was used as the basis for a request for proposals for renovations. Grothous says that ideally fountains such as the Maids of the Mist should undergo an thorough overhaul approximately every 30 years, so the timeline has gone well past that guidance.
Over the past winter, city staff members learned of the capital improvement grant opportunity and determined that the fountain’s restoration would be an eligible project, so they began to prepare the application for a 50/50 grant with a mandated completion date some time between October 1st of this year and the end of September 2021 if approved.
The city’s RFP resulted in a low bid of $178,639, so the city will apply for a grant of half that at $89,319.50 if the city commission issues the greenlight. It is on their consent agenda for tonight’s virtual commission meeting. The work would only proceed upon receipt of the grant unless the city rules otherwise at a later date.
