Palmer Park is a 296-acre (120 ha) public park in Detroit. It is named for U.S. Senator Thomas Witherell Palmer, who initially created the park when he donated 140-acre (57 ha) for a city park in 1893 on the condition that the virgin forest be preserved. The park includes a historic log cabin, a public golf course, tennis courts, hiking and biking trails and a large pond known as Lake Frances. There is also a fountain close to the lake known as the Merrill Humane Fountain.
LAKE FRANCES
A man-made lake dotted with small islands and anchored by a miniature red-and-white lighthouse that was once lit with an oil lamp. It was created at Senator Palmer's behest and named for his mother-in-law.
The Recreation Department created a second lake west of the current site of the Splash Park, to use as a fish breeding pond. Beyond it to the west, was Lake Harold with an island called Inselruh and a waterfall called Pontiac Cascade. Local legend states that the great Chief Pontiac was buried near the site of the waterfall. In the 1950s, Lake Harold was filled with earth excavated during the construction of the Lodge Freeway.
MERRILL HUMANE FOUNTAIN
The Merrill Fountain was designed by the architectural firm of Carrère and Hastingsand originally stood in front of the old Detroit Opera House in Campus Martius Park. Built in 1904 at a cost of US$1,000,000 ($26,248,148 in 2015), it was named forCharles Merrill and dedicated by his daughter, Elizabeth Palmer. As automobile traffic increased in downtown Detroit, the city’s elders decided to move the fountain to the Merrill Plaissance, at the far southern boundary of Palmer Park, in 1926. The fountain functioned for one season in the park and then pipes broke.It has been dry for over 50 years and suffered from theft of pieces and destruction by vandals.
The fountain is a white marble structure in the Italian Renaissance style. In the forefront is a circular pool leading up one level to another pool which is clover-shaped with three marble blocks in the center, each with a water spout. At the top of the fountain is an arch carved into cattails and water lilies over a niche containing a marble turtle straddled by two stylized fish. From the mouths of the figures water spouts lead to a vase-like pool beneath. Three steps lead from the clover-shaped pool to a balustrade on either side of the arch. The balusters are decorated with glyphs, four lion heads, and two gargoyles at the huge end posts; all of which spout water into the clover-shaped pool. Two scrolls dip from each post to the wall which surrounds the lower circular pool. Another small pool lies behind the arch and two small fountains hang off each end post of the balustrade.
We will be meeting there at 3:00p.m. with cleanup going from 3:30p.m to 4:30p.m.
We will be cleaning around Lake Frances and the Merrill Humane Fountain.
Palmer Park's Merrill Humane Fountain, July 2013