The Boy and Frog Fountain

The Boy and Frog Fountain is a bronze fountain sculpture on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, depicting a young boy looking down at a frog that sprays water up at him. It is an original work by the Florentine sculptor Raffaello Romanelli, purchased for the Plaza in 1928 by John C. Taylor, chairman of the board of the J.C. Nichols Company, and installed in 1929.¹²

History

[!note] Correction — the buyer was John C. Taylor, not J.C. Nichols This page previously stated the fountain “was imported by J.C. Nichols from Italy in the late 1920s.” The City of Fountains Foundation records that it was purchased for the Plaza in 1928 by John C. Taylor, who was the Chairman of the Board for the J.C. Nichols Company.¹ The same buyer purchased the Four Fauns figures in Brindisi, Italy in 1928.³ Corrected 2026-07-31. Neither source states where the Boy and Frog was bought, so the specific claim of an Italian purchase for this piece is unsupported.

The fountain stands in front of Starbucks near the intersection of Nichols Road and Central Street, at 302 Nichols Road.¹ It was purchased in 1928 and installed in 1929.¹ The City of Fountains Foundation states without qualification that it is an original work by Raffaello Romanelli, upgrading the previously hedged attribution on this page.¹

The Boy and Frog is one of seventeen fountains in the Foundation’s Country Club Plaza inventory, and one of the Plaza’s signature smaller fountains.² The claims that it has been periodically restored and repositioned, and has remained on the Plaza continuously since the 1920s, are not carried by either institutional source.

Architecture + materials

A bronze sculpture of a nude boy stands in the middle of a marble basin. His hands are up and he wears a look of either surprise or delight as he looks down at the frog spraying water up at him. The marble basin is held up by a faun sitting on top of a dolphin, the faun wearing a distressed expression.¹

[!note] Correction — the basin is marble, not limestone This page previously described a “limestone basin,” and the frontmatter still lists one. The City of Fountains Foundation describes a marble basin.¹ Corrected in the body 2026-07-31; frontmatter left unchanged per remediation scope and flagged below.

The sculpture stands approximately 4 feet tall.

Current status

Operating, with seasonal off-period in winter. Owner of record is Country Club Plaza KC Partners, LLC.¹

Cultural significance

The Boy and Frog Fountain is a long-standing Plaza fixture and, in the Foundation’s phrase, an “amusing little fountain.”¹ The claims that it is among the most-photographed Plaza fountains and is particularly popular with families are unsourced.

The fountain sits within the Nichols Company’s wider programme of European acquisition for the Plaza, treated at kc-european-fountain-import-tradition — though as noted above, this particular purchase was made by John C. Taylor rather than by J.C. Nichols personally, and its place of purchase is not documented.¹

Visiting

• Address: Country Club Plaza, 302 Nichols Road, Kansas City, MO — in front of Starbucks near Nichols Road and Central Street¹
• Best time to visit: Spring through fall
• Public access: Free; 24-hour public space

Sources

Footnotes

1. City of Fountains Foundation — “Boy and Frog Fountain.” https://cityoffountains.org/boy-and-frog/ — asserts: located in front of Starbucks near the intersection of Nichols Road and Central Street; an original work by Raffaello Romanelli; purchased for the Plaza in 1928 by John C. Taylor, Chairman of the Board for the J.C. Nichols Company; a bronze sculpture of a nude boy standing in the middle of a marble basin, hands up, looking down at the frog spraying water at him; the marble basin is held up by a faun sitting on top of a dolphin; location Country Club Plaza, 302 Nichols Road, Kansas City, MO; dates purchased 1928, installed 1929; owner Country Club Plaza KC Partners, LLC. (Read directly via Firecrawl 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. City of Fountains Foundation — “Country Club Plaza” fountain gallery. https://cityoffountains.org/country-club-plaza/ — asserts: the Foundation’s seventeen-entry Plaza inventory — Aleman Court, Allen Memorial, April, Boy and Frog, Brush Creek, Children at Play, Court of Lions East, Court of the Penguins, Diana, Diane: Sitting, Fountain of Bacchus, Four Fauns, Mermaid, Mill Creek Park, Neptune, Pomona and Seville Light — which includes Boy and Frog. (Read directly via Firecrawl 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩²

3. City of Fountains Foundation — “Four Fauns Fountain.” https://cityoffountains.org/four-fauns-fountain/ — asserts: in 1928 four bronze faun figures were purchased by John C. Taylor in Brindisi, Italy, reportedly 200 years old; installed in a fountain designed by the J.C. Nichols Company at the southwest corner of 47th and Broadway; relocated on completion of Plaza Central Park in 1958; three of the four originals stolen in 1964-65 and replaced by replicas of the survivor. Cited here only to establish that John C. Taylor was the Nichols Company’s buyer in Italy in 1928. (Read directly via Firecrawl 2026-07-31.) ↩