The fountain in wetter times

With persnickety German-made pump parts and a sensitive infrastructure, it has become a rite of summer waiting for water to return to Cal Anderson’s “fountain mountain,”

Seattle Parks tells CHS the Waterworks installation should be turned back on “any day now” after going dry — again — even as the park’s reflecting pool remained filled.

We don’t know exactly what went wrong this time but past repairs have frequently involved the fountain’s pump and broken water lines.

In 2021, parks mounted a $35,000 overhaul of the Doug Hollis-designed fountain that included work to strengthen the structure and apply water repellent and anti-graffiti coatings.

The fountain is a celebration of what lies beneath Cal Anderson and the creation of the neighborhood’s central park — two 6.25 million-gallon vaults full of Seattle Public Utilities drinking water. There has been a reservoir at the site for more than 115 years. After the state mandated that Seattle’s open water sources needed to be covered in the early 1990s, Kay Rood and community groups helped lead an effort to cap the reservoir with a park.

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