Testing lighting on Brewer Fountain, Boston Common, Dec. 2017 (Photo credit Sarah Hutt)
Outdoor illumination of fountains has long been popular because of their beauty at night, as well as improved safety of the park space. The Friends of the Public Garden is working with the City of Boston to install an improved system of submersible lights in the basins of the Brewer Fountain. Still a work in progress, but we expect that the lighting will be installed in 2018.
Stay tuned! We will keep you updated on the project.
Brewer Fountain on Boston Common is a beautiful copy of the gold medal-winning fountain sculpted for the Paris World’s Fair of 1855 by French artists Mathurin Moreau and Alexandre Lambert. It was a gift to the city from philanthropist Gardner Brewer in 1867 when it was installed on the Common near his Park Street home. It was moved to its current location near the corner of Park and Tremont Streets around 1917. It is an exuberant design with water gods and goddesses, spouting dolphins, and terraced basins dropping water onto the figures below. The design of the original celebrated the arrival of water systems to European cities.
Learn more about the Friends and the restoration of Brewer Fountain and Brewer Fountain Plaza.