The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-22
P. s. BENNETT
 FOUNTAIN SITE Exact Spot upon Which Beautiful Memorial Is To Be Located on
 Green. CHOSEN YESTERDAY BY THE COMMITTEE Description of the Fountain Design Just Completed by Professor John F.
 Weir.

Professor John F. Weir, of the Yale
 School of Fine Arts, has just complet-
 ed the design for the drinking fountain
 to the placed at the corner of Chapel
 and Church street, on the New Haven
 green, in memory of Philo S. Bennett,
 and steps will be taken soon to set 1t
 in place. A model Is on exhibition in
 the window of Tiernan's art store on
 Chapel street.
 Yesterday afternoon Judge Simeon E.
 Baldwin and Colonel Rutherford Trow-
 bridge, of the park commission, accom-
 panied by Professor Weir. visited the
 green and fixed upon the exact spot on
 which the fountain is to be located.
 This spot is about thirty feet from the
 curb-corner of Church and Chapel
 streets, in a line with the middle path
 leading from the corner of the green to
 the right of Center church.
 After the death of MT. Bennett it was
 found that in his will was provision
 for the building of, a drinking fountain
 at the corner of the green, supplanting
 the present wooden structure The
 amount set aside by Mr. Bennett was
 $1O0O0, which the inheritance law re- duced to something less than $S,2O0. Since then the sum has increased by being deposited in savings banks by the park commission. Professor Weir was commissioned several months ago to make design, which, when sub- 1nitted to the commission, was found to be satisfactory. He was then direct ed to prepare the model. The next step will be to contract for the marble fountain itself. There was some talk in opposition to memorial In MT. Ben> nett's honor at the time, upon the ground that the site should be reserved ! for one more intimately connected with the life of the city. The park commits sion, however, took the position that to refuse so handsome a gift and postpone so useful 8 fountain would be unneces- sarily discriminating
 Description of Fountain.
 The sketch-model for the Bennett | Drinking Fountain, made to scale of one aud seven -sixteenths inches to a | e. tn in the window of Mir Tiernan's Art store, S27 Chapel street,
 The design of the structure is arehi- tectural based on the general pro- portions of the beautiful Choragic tro- phy of Bysicrates near the Acropolis at Athens. The purpose and location of the drinking fountain suggested design that would takeup as little ground-space as possible and rise above the heads of the crowd frequent ly collected on this corner; the main feature, group of six columns SUD- porting the entablature, being always visible. The proportions of the base and superstructure are nearly three fourths the size of the Choragic tro- phy. The design, however, Is an adaptation rather than copy; the details of the members, while retain ing the relative proportions of the original, are many of them altered to conform to the requirements of the situation. For instance, for the dou- ble chineau surmounting the cornice of the Choragio monument are substitut- ed odillions supporting the corona. This change was made necessary from the location under the trees where the chineau would have held the leaves, them into mould that would soon have stained the whole structure. This change has the ef- feet of strengthening and enriching the cornice by It's play of light and shade Then, too, the ntercolumniations are letf open, instead of being closed with marble slabs as in the original; this al- lows the sight to pass through the cir T cular colonnade to the sky or distant I objects; the design derives one of its d most important features from this in effecting which 1t was . found necessary to increase the width of the columns as supports, adopting t very slight entasis and leaving out the dutings.
 Between the six columns the model . shows fountain-vase that will afford c a bubbling gush of water only few Inches in height; not high enough to I be blown against the columns, or upon :. the path beneath, the height of this part of the structure being eleven feet ' above the ground,
 Underneath the cap of the base, which in the original Is very narrow, Il there has been added an egg and dart to strengthen this member; and the four drinking places at the four sides, two for men and two for I dogs, are inclsed niches designed to break the outline as slightly as possi- ble. In two of the inches there will ba n bronze lion-heads emitting water, and places for the drinking The inter- n
 GCoutiuued on gecond PaReA S