FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 19, 2015 Media Contact: Jessica Walden, 478.621.4420 or jessica@collegehillmacon.com Centennial Tattnall Square Park Fountain Returning to Historic Park Friends of Tattnall Square Park Secures Funding to Recreate Park’s Original Fountain Centerpiece MACON – Friends of Tattnall Square Park, the all-volunteer group of residents leading the restoration of the historic city park, announced on Thursday that funds have been committed to recreate and install the Centennial Tattnall Square Park Fountain. The funders will be the Knight Neighborhood Challenge, Piedmont Construction Group, Sierra Development Corporation, Mercer University and Friends of Tattnall Square Park. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the park’s restoration in 1915, Friends of Tattnall Square Park has engaged in a wide-ranging effort to fully restore the park by 2015. Within the last two years, Friends of Tattnall Square Park has worked closely with Mercer University, the Knight Foundation, the College Hill Alliance, the city of Macon and the state of Georgia to bring more than $2.3 million in investment to the park. According to the Friends of Tattnall Square Park, “The Centennial Tattnall Square Park Fountain will provide the focal point of the newly restored park – one of the oldest public city parks in America.” “Every great public park is graced with the presence of water,” said Friends of Tattnall Square Park President Andrew Silver. “Tattnall Square Park is the centerpiece of the College Hill Corridor, and the Tattnall Square Park fountain is the centerpiece of the centerpiece. The park’s radial path system calls for something truly special at its center, and now, with the generosity of these wonderful donors, Tattnall Square Park will, for the first time in 80 years, have a flowing fountain to attract and delight all park goers at the center of the park.” The return of the historic 1914 fountain lies at the heart of Tattnall Square Parks’s restoration efforts. Other projects currently underway include a privately-funded festival plaza, a natural performance stage with sun sail shades, a grand entrance that includes the historical arched sign and pillars, completion of the perimeter sidewalk with traffic-calming bump-outs along Oglethorpe Street, completion of the arboretum sidewalk through the rain garden and an entrance patio, pillars and extension of the curb line at Oglethorpe and Adams. “The improvements and support of Tattnall Square Park are only possible because of the partnerships between people working towards a common goal,” said Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert. “This is a model which would benefit all of our parks, and even our entire government. Working together, we can accomplish a great deal more than any of us can on our own.”
At Thursday’s press conference that detailed plans for the fountain, Mercer University President William D. Underwood said he predicts Tattnall Square Park will one day join the ranks of Atlanta’s Piedmont Park and Savannah’s Forsyth Park. “I predict five years from now, when you Google Georgia’s best municipal parks, Macon’s Tattnall Square Park will be on that list.” First appearing on maps in 1853, the original designers called the fountain “the crown of the park.” After its construction in 1915, the distinctive five story water feature with cast iron frogs at the base was lauded by its designers as “the most fascinating and instructive fountain ever designed,” making Tattnall Square Park “the most beautiful park of its size in the country: a perfect little gem.” Friends of Tattnall Square Park are working closely with world-renowned Robinson Iron Works to design a cast iron fountain with similar dimensions and styling as the original fountain, all the way down to the cast-iron frogs. The four-tiered fountain will be over 17-feet tall and over 12 feet in diameter. The goal is to have the fountain completed and installed by August 1, 2015. Friends of Tattnall Square Park is a non-profit organization devoted to the restoration and preservation of the historic park. The Historic Macon Foundation recognized the group’s achievements with the 2013 Thad E. Murphey Chair’s Choice Award for “the most significant preservation project of the year.” Last year, the City Parks Alliance named Tattnall Square Park one of 12 nationally recognized “Frontline Parks” for 2014. This year, Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful has honored Friends of Tattnall Square Park with the “Organization of the Year Award for Beautification.” Initially established with a grant to Mercer University from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in 2009, the College Hill Alliance assists the community in creating positive change to the physical, social and economic fabric of the College Hill Corridor, a two-square mile area between Mercer’s campus and Macon, Georgia’s downtown business district. Today, the internationally recognized economic development project has leveraged over $100 million in urban renewal, entrepreneurship, arts, neighborhood growth and entertainment, with another $100 million in projects to get underway within the next year. Visit collegehillmacon.com for more information. For more information, contact Jessica Walden at the College Hill Alliance: Jessica@collegehillmacon.com / 478.621.4420. ###