This has proven to be an interesting Waymark. I had taken photographs of the fountain in late April 2010, before water was running (still to early in the season to make sure the water would not freeze). I returned in the summer to get photos with the fountain in operation.
While trying to conduct research on the fountain, I kept finding 'definitive' information it was located in Hungarian Park at Speer and Clarkson. However, I had just photographed the fountain at Tremont and Park Avenue. I finally pieced together the information from an application for the 'U.S. National Register of Historic Places Multiple Properties of the Architecture of Jules Jacques Benois Benedict in Colorado' (
visit link) .
NOTE: The information below is paraphrased from the above referenced application form.
May Bonfils Berryman selected Jacques Benedict to draft plans for her country estate of Belmar, 769 S. Wadsworth Blvd., Lakewood (1936, razed) in today’s suburb of Lakewood. Belmar’s initial cost estimate of $100,000 made it a significant project in the middle of the Great Depression. (pages 42-42, photo of fountain on page 43)
The fountain designed by Benedict (a duplicate of the Benedict Fountain installed at E. 20th Avenue and Tremont Place in 1932) at Belmar was moved to Hungarian Freedom Park in about 1971. [NOTE: Probably closer to 1976 since the plaque on the fountain cites the Colorado centennial and the U.S> bicentennial.] (page 43)
In 1929, he [Benedict] announced plans to donate a children’s wading pool/fountain to the City and County of Denver. The architect designed the 'Benedict Fountain', E. 20th Avenue and Tremont Place, Denver (1932, razed; replica installed 1977 [in Hungarian Freedom Park]), which was “"6 feet 7 inches high with two dripping basins 10 1/2 feet square at the base. It is ornamented with lions, frogs and other figures appropriate to fountains, and fashioned of terra cotta." The $12,000 fountain was executed by sculptor Maurice Bardin of Paris and [originally] installed in 1932. The location at E. 20th Avenue and Tremont Place was selected to provide a recreational amenity for a non-affluent area. Over time, the fountain fell into disrepair, and, by the 1970s, it was determined that the resource could not be repaired. The original was scrapped and a replica was crafted in travertine marble in Carrara, Italy, and installed in September 1977. The triangular park in which the fountain is located is now known as Benedict Park. (page 44) NOTE: It was moved to this new park in 2005.
So...
If you read above carefully, it is a bit confusing. I came to the conclusion there were at least two fountains made in the 1920-30s. One for the Belmar Mansion and one for the City and County of Denver. One was razed. One, sculpted by Maurice Bardin, made of terra cotta, fell into disrepair and was replicated in the mid-1970s of travertine marble in Carrara, Italy, and installed in Hungarian Freedom Park in September 1977. In 2005, the fountain was moved to Benedict Fountain Park in Denver's Five Points neighborhood, the original location of the fountain Benedict donated to the city in 1932.
The plaque on the fountain reads:
BENEDICT FOUNTAIN AND WADING POOL
A Gift to the City and County of Denver
by J.B. Benedict, Denver architect, on July 17, 1932
Completely restored in travertine stone by
the Denver Urban Renewal Authority and the
City and County of Denver Parks and Recreation
Department during the Colorado Centennial and
U.S. Bicentennial year of 1976