my staycation: the city fountain

I took some photographs this summer during my Pottsville stay-cation. The one above is the world-famous fountain where legend has it, if you toss coins over your shoulder into its waters, you will return to Pottsville one day and the more coins you throw in the longer the stay. Yes, I am talking about the fountain at the corner of South Centre Street and Mahantongo Street. Not many coins in the fountain unfortunately. Mammy took this photograph. She could have gotten a little closer.

Yes, eye catching fountains are a must-have thing for any self-respecting city that wants to attract tourists and Pottsville has one of the best. Top notch. Jim Dandy. Awesome. What more can I say? Perhaps, “nifty.” This unnamed fountain was built in the 1970s with “Revenue Sharing” money that flooded into the area from Washington, D.C. Some say it is unnamed because no one wants to be associated with it, but that is just an urban legand. But it certainly is one piece of the “history of the 1970s” that when you see it, you’ll want to cry.

Yes, this artificially produced jet of water was bigger than I expected. From the postcards I had received over the years I thought it would be smaller. I stood there in awe. Yes, it did bring to my mind Versailles, the seat of the Sun King, Louis XIV, I have to admit that. The sumptuous use of water along Centre Avenue (note the French spelling of the word center) could not be otherwise.

At night I did get the opportunity to view the entertainment options that the fountain offers one's senses. At 9 PM every evening during the summer months the fountain offers a mesmerizing show of water, music and light, all interwoven to romance your senses. I promised Mammy we would return again next summer as we were so impressed. Try to imagine watching this fountain dancing to the rhythms of such 70s songs such as “Muskrat Love, “Kung Fu Fighting” and “Macho Man.” Unbelievable.Stupendous. Astounding. What more can I say. Wicked, perhaps, but that is it."

All of this is done for sheer entertainment, free of charge. It is an ambitiously choreographed complex water show set against the beautiful backdrop of the city’s closed public restrooms. Very clever indeed. There is no other municipal water fountain that offers the same scope, spectacle and emotional impact as this downtown city fountain.

There are some nay sayers, such as my brother-in-law who said, when first viewing the fountain, “Is that a leak in the building or was there a fire?” Municipal Jealousy! What more can I say. Perhaps,”cosmopolitan covetness.” Please ignore those architectural ignoramouses (ignoramice?).

How does one then summarize the Pottsville fountain to the novice? With the flux of tourists waiting to arrive at the soon-to-open Intermodal bus station, a summary is needed quickly….. It is a simple combination of a basin and a spout. It is this simplicity that draws the viewer inward. The water that feeds into the fountain comes from the Norwegian Creek, the mysterious natural underground spring that runs below the surface of the land we call home, and this natural spring only appears to the visible eye at the Ryon Insurance Company parking lot where hundreds flock because of the water’s supposed healing abilities. That is a topic for another blog.

This simple fountain, although less flashy than its sister fountains in Rome or Paris, makes a passerby totally relax, creating an atmosphere that is stress-free, and forget the loss of Pottsville’s past.