The Neptune Fountain

A lead Neptune-in-chariot group at the Country Club Plaza, cast in 1911 in England by the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts for a Pennsylvania estate, and installed on the Plaza by the J.C. Nichols Company in 1953 after Miller Nichols bought the salvaged, roughly 8,000-pound casting for the price of its weight in scrap metal.¹²³

[!warning] Corrected 2026-07-31 This page previously described the Neptune as a bronze figure imported from Italy as part of the Nichols Company’s “continuing European-art-import practice,” with the sculptor recorded as “Unknown / Italian-import.” Every element of that is wrong. The piece is lead, was cast in Worcestershire, England, and reached Kansas City not through the Plaza’s art-buying programme but out of a railroad car in a salvage yard. The 1953 installation date, and J.C. Nichols’s 1950 death, are the only parts of the original account that hold up.

History

The Neptune was cast in lead in 1911 by the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts of Worcestershire, England — a guild of artists and designers that operated from 1898 to 1966 and whose other works include the gates of Buckingham Palace, fittings for the Lusitania, and trim on the RMS Queen Mary. The Guild also cast the lead Bacchus Fountain now standing outside the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza.¹

It was made for Alba Boardman Johnson, president of the Baldwin Locomotive Company from 1911 — the year he ordered the fountain — and installed at his Pennsylvania estate, Castana, in Rosemont.²³ After Johnson’s death, his estate could find no buyer and the fountain was discarded. Years later a salvage crew found it inside an old railroad car; hearing of the find, Miller Nichols — son of Plaza developer J.C. Nichols, who had died in 1950 — bought the roughly 8,000 pounds of lead for its scrap-metal value. The J.C. Nichols Company installed it on the Plaza in 1953 and dedicated it to all Plaza visitors.¹²

Sources conflict on the year of Johnson’s death. The City of Fountains Foundation gives 1946;¹ Clio gives 1935, twice and consistently, noting he led Baldwin Locomotive from 1911 until his death and served as first president of the Pennsylvania State Chamber of Commerce from 1917 until his death.² Clio’s date is the better-supported of the two, but neither is independently confirmed here.

Architecture + materials

The group is cast entirely in lead, weighing approximately 8,000 pounds, and depicts Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, holding his trident and riding in a chariot.¹² Sources disagree on what pulls the chariot: Clio says three horses (tying to Neptune’s epithet Neptunus Equester and the derivation of “equestrian” from his name); the City of Fountains Foundation instead describes the chariot as “pulled by three attributes, the trident, the dolphin, and sea horse.”¹² The plaque on the fountain records the 1911 lead casting and the Bromsgrove Guild, and the group appears to be a replica of an earlier sculpture whose original artist is unknown.³ on the chariot team.

The earlier description on this page — “cast bronze Neptune figure atop a multi-jet limestone basin” — is not supported by any source and is contradicted on material by all three.

Current status

Operating.¹ The seasonal winter off-period asserted here is standard Plaza practice but is not confirmed for this fountain by any source consulted.

Cultural significance

The Neptune arrived on the Plaza by an unglamorous route — a scrap purchase, not a European buying trip — which is itself the point: it is a 1911 English guild casting made for an American industrialist’s country estate, rescued from destruction and given a second public life in Kansas City. Where the Boy and Frog Fountain (1920s) was J.C. Nichols-era, the Neptune belongs to Miller Nichols’s four-decade run at the head of the family business, during which he placed many of Kansas City’s fountains.²

The fountain is a frequent backdrop for Plaza photography + events.

Visiting

• Address: Country Club Plaza, 308 West 47th Street, Kansas City, MO¹
• Best time to visit: Spring through fall
• Public access: Free

Sources

Footnotes

1. City of Fountains Foundation — “Neptune.” https://cityoffountains.org/neptune/ — asserts: installed in the 1950s; the Roman god of the sea moves in his chariot pulled by “three attributes, the trident, the dolphin, and sea horse”; cast in 1911 by the Bromsgrove Guild of Worcestershire, England, for the Pennsylvania estate of Alba B. Johnson, then president of Baldwin Locomotive Co.; after Johnson’s death (given here as 1946) the 8,000 pounds of lead could not find a lasting home; Miller Nichols purchased the piece for its weight in scrap metal after salvage-company workers found it inside a railroad car; the J.C. Nichols Co. installed it in 1953 and dedicated it to all visitors at the Plaza; location Country Club Plaza, 308 West 47th, Kansas City, MO; designer/artist Bromsgrove Guild; created 1911, installed 1953; owner Country Club Plaza KC Partners, LLC; the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts operated 1898-1966, also cast the lead Bacchus Fountain outside the Cheesecake Factory (https://cityoffountains.org/fountain-of-bacchus/), and made the gates of Buckingham Palace, work for the Lusitania, and trim on the RMS Queen Mary. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. The Clio — “Neptune Fountain,” entry 68992. https://theclio.com/entry/68992 — asserts: brought to Kansas City in 1953 by Miller Nichols, son of Country Club Plaza developer J.C. Nichols; depicts Neptune riding in a horse-drawn chariot; sculpted in 1911 by the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts of Worcestershire, England, holding his trident in a chariot pulled by three horses; made entirely of lead and said to weigh approximately 8,000 pounds; produced for Alba Boardman Johnson, president of Baldwin Locomotive Company from 1911 until his death in 1935, and first president of the Pennsylvania State Chamber of Commerce from 1917 until his death in 1935; originally sited at the Castana estate in Rosemont, Pennsylvania; after Johnson’s death the estate could not find a buyer and the fountain was discarded, later found by a salvage team in an old railroad car and bought by Miller Nichols for its weight in scrap metal; after J.C. Nichols’s death in 1950 Miller ran the family business for nearly four decades and placed many Kansas City fountains, installing this one on the Plaza in 1953; Neptune also known as Neptunus Equester, the root of “equestrian.” (theclio.com returns HTTP 403 to plain automated fetches; full text read directly via Firecrawl 2026-07-31. The entry reproduces historic photographs of the fountain at Castana credited to the McLean Library and Archives, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and embeds a short history by local historian Bill Worley.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Wikimedia Commons — “File:Country Club Plaza, KC MO - fountain 1.JPG,” photograph by Daderot, 2008. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Country_Club_Plaza,_KC_MO_-_fountain_1.JPG — asserts: reporting the text of the plaque on the fountain itself — the statue was cast in lead in 1911 by the Bromsgrove Guild of Worcestershire, England, for Alba B. Johnson, president of the Baldwin Locomotive Company, and installed in the Country Club Plaza in 1953; the uploader adds that the group appears to be a replica of an earlier sculpture of unknown date and artist. (Cited as the nearest available proxy for the on-site plaque, which has not been read directly.) ↩ ↩² ↩³