Italian Lake, located
at 3rd and Division Streets in uptown Harrisburg, PA, is one of
those parks that may be unknown to some and forgotten by others.
Prior to its creation in the early 1930's the lake area was a
marshy swamp much like some of the areas at nearby Wildwood
Lake. The man made lake has had its good times and bad, but
currently it's in fine shape and it's a beautifully serene
place to visit. Surrounded by benches, gardens, sculpted shrubbery
and lighting, the lake is pinched in the middle forming upper and
lower water portions. The center is crossed by a cool Japanese
style arched bridge with steps and a ramp. A riser for the Italian
Lake Concert Series performances completes the scene.
In the lower portion
of the lake stands a fountain sculpture named “Dance of the
Eternal Spring” and that has a story all
its own. Created in 1909 by Philadelphia sculptor Giuseppe Donato,
it was originally commissioned by Milton Hershey for his gardens.
When the piece was completed the three nude dancing nymphs offended
the conservative Hershey and he refused to accept it. It is said
that Hershey's conservative nature with money was more to play here
than anything else. The agreed upon price was $3100 and Hershey
paid $2000 as a down payment. When Donato came to collect, the
finished cost turned out to be $31,000 - ten times the agreed upon
price. That coupled with the nudity and the fact that the models
had unsavory reputations as nude dancing girls - Hershey refused to
pay and ended up in court. Donato won the suit and was paid an
additional $24,000.
This is where
Harrisburg enters the story. The ticked off Hershey had left the
nymphs in their crate in a railroad car at The Hershey Railway
Station until 1920 when he donated it to Harrisburg's Mayor John K.
Royal for Reservoir Park. Eighteen years later it was moved when
the J. Horace McFarland Rose Garden opened at The Polyclinic
Hospital. (the nymphs were inching closer to their current home)
While residing in the hospital rose garden, a tradition emerged,
nursing school seniors would adorn the nymphs in lingerie the night
before their graduation. The hospital eventually turned the rose
garden into a parking lot and those embarrassing lingerie days for
the nymphs were finally over. In 1971 the sculpture was moved to
Italian Lake and in the crowd that day for its dedication was none
other than Madeline Stokes, one of the storied dancers who had
contributed to the chocolate makers disgust with this beautiful
work of art. That next year Stokes passed away at the age of
98.
Just a little on
Madeline Stokes before you head out with your GPS. Born Amanda
Straw in Fishing Creek Valley in 1875 - yep you read it right, she
called rural Fishing Creek Valley home. Amanda changed her name to
Madeline Stokes after she moved to Philadelphia and started a
vaudeville career. Even as she approached her late 30s, Stokes was
quite the popular model, appearing on the cover of numerous
magazines. If you visit Philadelphia's Fairmount Park she's on the
sundial created by Alexander Caldwell II. If you've ever visited
the governor's reception room at the capitol her likeness appears
in a mural there. Wow! Whatta' gal!
All right already -
enough fun history - go find the cache!
To claim this cache:
- Find the cache -
park hours 6am-10pm
- Sign the log - BYOP
- Post your photo with the nymphs behind you - this is not an
additional logging requirement, it's just for fun!
This is part of our
Perryzip Crew Geocache Trail (PZC-GT). In an attempt to share neat
places and things, we’ve come up with this trail around the PA
capital region. Please be sure to make note of the single digit
number written on the log. When you've completed the trail and
combine the numbers in cache numerical order, you'll have the
coordinates to the Unknown Cache 'City of Harrisburg - PZC-GT #16
(THE FINAL)'. Have fun!