The Fountains of South Kansas City

South Kansas City — the broad arc of neighborhoods south of Brookside and the Country Club District, extending through Waldo, Martin City, Red Bridge, Verona Hills, and Hickman Mills — contains a dispersed collection of fountains at residential, municipal, and commercial sites. The inventory is less thoroughly documented than the central-city concentration, and a complete site-by-site survey remains pending. What the institutional record actually shows is a hard southern edge: the southernmost documented fountain in Kansas City, Missouri is the Marlborough Plaza Fountain at 79th and The Paseo, and nothing at all is documented in Waldo, Martin City, Red Bridge, Verona Hills or Hickman Mills.¹²³

Summary

The Fountains of South Kansas City, as documented by the City of Fountains Foundation, the City of Kansas City’s open-data inventory, and KC Parks’ own fountain listing:

South of 63rd Street — the genuinely “south KC” band:

• Harold D. Rice Memorial Fountain — The Paseo at E. 71st Terrace, in a grassy concourse with a red brick patio. A pedestal with multi-tiered bowls in a pool basin. 1989; KCMO Parks & Recreation. Named for the founder of the City of Fountains Foundation, established 1973 to add one fountain a year and preserve the existing ones.⁴²³
• Marlborough Plaza Fountain — The Paseo at E. 79th Street. Originally the “Boy and a Fish” fountain, purchased by J.C. Nichols in 1923 and sited on the Country Club Plaza until 1968, when it was moved here to make room for the Seville Light Fountain. The original sculpture is gone; the ornate basins survive. Conserved 2012; KCMO Parks & Recreation. The southernmost fountain in the city’s inventory.⁵²³
• Sixty-Ninth Street Fountain — median of Ward Parkway between W. 68th Terrace and W. 69th Street. Installed by the J.C. Nichols Company in 1930; pedestal fountain on a stone base in a 30 × 36-foot pool. Owner: Armour Fields Homes Association.⁶²
• Wornall Fountain (a.k.a. Armour Fields Fountain, Wornall and 67th Street Fountain) — triangular traffic island on the west side of Wornall Road at 67th Street; an urn on a pedestal spilling into a brick-lined pool. Installed 2004; kept by the Armour Fields Homes Association, with ownership of the fountain and island disputed between the association and the City.⁶

Country Club District edge (documented, but properly the subject of country-club-district-residential-fountains and brookside-fountains):

• Armour Center Fountain — W. 69th Street at Brookside and Edgevale roads; a gift of the J.C. Nichols Company marking the opening of the Armour Hills subdivision, dedicated April 24, 1924. The original Carrara marble group of two children and an eagle, bought in Venice, was vandalised and removed in 1954 and replaced with the present bronze boy, bird and goose. Armour Hills Homes Association.⁷
• Romanelli Island Fountain — the island formed by W. 69th, Edgevale and Wornall, dedicated Romanelli Island in 2007. Travertine pedestal fountain by Romano Romanelli, purchased in Florence in 1925; three cherubs around a goose. Restored 1993; conserved with a new sculpture by Robert Ojeda and Marretta Kennedy in 2007. Armour Fields Homes Association.⁷
• Romany Fountain — Ward Parkway at Romany Road; a pedestal fountain whose two saucers pour through the pursed lips of children’s or angels’ faces. 1930; KCMO Parks & Recreation.⁸²³
• Ward Parkway Mirror Pool Fountain — median between W. 61st Terrace and W. 62nd Street. Built 1924 by Edward Buehler Delk as part of the Ward Parkway beautification, originally a reflecting pool also used for miniature boating and ice skating; three sets of spray rings added in the 1965 renovation. KCMO Parks & Recreation.⁸²³
• Stratford Gardens Fountain — W. 63rd Street at State Line Road. 1927; the lower basin is a Carrara marble antique horse trough reportedly first used in a public square in Rome, with a smaller human-drinking trough above it. Out of service for years; restored by the Stratford Gardens Homes Association and returned to operation in spring 2017.⁸

East of the Country Club District:

• 49/63 Neighborhood Fountain — green space at E. 58th Street and Lydia Avenue, bordered east by The Paseo. Brick and concrete, water running down a course set by raised bricks. Will Nettleship, 1997; KCMO Parks & Recreation.⁹²³
• American War Mothers Memorial Fountain — traffic circle at E. Meyer Boulevard and The Paseo; an 18-foot rectangular limestone obelisk with a spout in each face, dedicated to those who served in World War I, with blue, gold and white stars for the serving, the dead and the wounded. Edward Buehler Delk; installed June 1, 1942; one of two solar-powered KCMO Parks fountains, its panel across the street in Dunn Park.⁹²³

The Delbert J. Haff Circle Fountain at E. Meyer Boulevard and Swope Parkway marks the eastern end of this band; it is treated at swope-park-fountains.

Asserted but not documented — none of the following was found in the City of Fountains Foundation inventory, the City of Kansas City open-data inventory, or KC Parks’ fountain listing, as checked on 2026-07-31:

• Waldo area fountains — no fountain is documented anywhere in Waldo.
• Martin City area fountains
• Red Bridge area fountains
• Verona Hills and other south KC residential-neighborhood fountains
• South KC municipal park fountains — KC Parks operates no fountain south of 79th Street.³

Together they represent the City of Fountains tradition carried southward into the postwar suburban districts.

Background

South KC’s fountain installations developed largely during postwar suburban expansion, as the residential patterns of the Country Club District — which normalized decorative water features in residential streetscapes — extended south through successive decades of development.⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹

Municipal parks in the Red Bridge and Hickman Mills corridors added public fountain infrastructure as those neighborhoods grew. ****¹²³

Long-term significance

Geographic extension of the KC fountain tradition

South KC fountains carry the City of Fountains identity into the metro’s southern residential fringe. While the density is lower than midtown or the Country Club District, their presence affirms that the tradition is citywide rather than confined to the historic core. The honest limit is worth recording: the tradition thins to nothing below 79th Street, and the homes-association fountains of Armour Hills, Armour Fields and Stratford Gardens — not municipal ones — carry most of it.⁶⁷⁸

Private stewardship

Four of the fountains in this band are owned not by the city but by homes associations — Armour Fields (two), Armour Hills and Stratford Gardens — and one of those, the Wornall Fountain, has contested ownership between the association and the City. South KC’s fountain stock is to an unusual degree privately maintained civic infrastructure.⁶⁷⁸

Sites associated

• The Paseo corridor — Harold D. Rice Memorial Fountain (71st Terrace), Marlborough Plaza Fountain (79th), American War Mothers Memorial Fountain (Meyer Boulevard), 49/63 Neighborhood Fountain (58th and Lydia)⁴⁵⁹
• Ward Parkway corridor — Mirror Pool (62nd), Romany (Romany Road), Sixty-Ninth Street⁶⁸
• Armour Hills / Armour Fields / Romanelli Gardens — Armour Center, Romanelli Island, Wornall fountains⁶⁷
• Stratford Gardens — Stratford Gardens Fountain, 63rd and State Line⁸
• Waldo, Martin City, Red Bridge, Verona Hills, Hickman Mills — asserted, not documented

Sources

Footnotes

1. City of Fountains Foundation — “South Plaza, Brookside & Mission Hills” (regional fountain gallery). https://cityoffountains.org/south-plaza-brookside-mission-hills/ — asserts: the Foundation’s inventory for the area south of the Country Club Plaza, 28 entries spanning both sides of the state line. Its Missouri-side south-of-the-Plaza entries are American War Mothers Memorial, Armour Center, Eubank Memorial (Raytown), Laura Conyers Smith, Loose Park Lake, Loose Park Wall Fountains, Marlborough Plaza, Meyer Circle Sea Horse, Romanelli Island, Romany, Sixty-Ninth Street, Stratford Gardens, Ward Parkway Mirror Pool, Wornall, and 49/63 Neighborhood. The gallery contains no entry in Waldo, Martin City, Red Bridge, Verona Hills or Hickman Mills. (Read via Firecrawl 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩²

2. City of Kansas City, Missouri — “Monuments, Fountains, Sculptures and Attractions” open-data inventory (dataset 6x5f-7sf4; 230 records). https://data.kcmo.org/d/6x5f-7sf4 (machine-readable: https://data.kcmo.org/resource/6x5f-7sf4.json) — asserts: the City’s own catalogue, with type, address, artist, medium, date, owner and coordinates. Its southernmost fountain records are Harold D. Rice Fountain (The Paseo and E. 72nd Street) and Marlborough Plaza Fountain (The Paseo and E. 79th Street). No record exists for any fountain in Waldo, Martin City, Red Bridge, Verona Hills or Hickman Mills. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. Kansas City Parks and Recreation — “Fountains” (place-type listing of the department’s fountain inventory). https://kcparks.org/place_types/fountains/ — asserts: KC Parks’ own catalogue of the fountains it owns and operates, 46 entries. Its south-KC entries are Harold D. Rice Fountain, Marlborough Plaza Fountain, Romany Fountain, Mirror Pool, Meyer Circle Sea Horse Fountain, American War Mothers Memorial Fountain, 49/63 Neighborhood Fountain and Delbert J. Haff Circle Fountain. The department operates no fountain south of 79th Street. (kcparks.org is reported to block some automated fetches; read via Firecrawl 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. City of Fountains Foundation — “Harold D. Rice Memorial Fountain.” https://cityoffountains.org/harold-d-rice-memorial-fountain/ — asserts: Harold D. Rice founded the City of Fountains Foundation in 1973 with the goal of adding one fountain per year and preserving existing ones; the fountain dedicated to him is a pedestal with multi-tiered bowls in a pool basin, near E. 71st Terrace in a grassy concourse of The Paseo with a red brick patio (benches removed after repeated vandalism); 1989; owner KCMO Parks & Recreation. ↩ ↩²

5. City of Fountains Foundation — “Marlborough Plaza Fountain.” https://cityoffountains.org/marlborough-plaza-fountain-south-plaza/ — asserts: originally the “Boy and a Fish” fountain, purchased in 1923 by J.C. Nichols and located on the Country Club Plaza until 1968, when it was moved to The Paseo and E. 79th Street to accommodate the Seville Light Fountain; the original sculpture is no longer present but the ornate basins remain intact; purchased 1923, relocated 1968, conserved 2012; owner KCMO Parks & Recreation. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. City of Fountains Foundation — “Sixty-Ninth Street Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/sixty-ninth-street-fountain/ and “Wornall Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/wornall-fountain/ — assert: the Sixty-Ninth Street Fountain was installed by the J.C. Nichols Company in 1930 in the Ward Parkway median between W. 68th Terrace and W. 69th Street, a pedestal fountain on a stone base in a 30 × 36-foot pool, owner Armour Fields Homes Association; and the Wornall Fountain (a.k.a. Armour Fields Fountain, Wornall and 67th Street Fountain) sits on a triangular traffic island on the west side of Wornall Road at 67th Street, an urn on a pedestal spilling into a triangular brick-lined pool, landscaped by the Armour Fields Homes Association, installed 2004, with ownership of fountain and island disputed between the association and the City of Kansas City. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

7. City of Fountains Foundation — “Armour Center Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/armour-center-fountain/ and “Romanelli Island Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/romanelli-island-fountain/ — assert: the Armour Center Fountain at W. 69th Street, Brookside Road and Edgevale Road was a gift of the J.C. Nichols Company commemorating the opening of the Armour Hills subdivision, cast-concrete base and basins with a marble statue base, original Carrara marble group of two children and an eagle purchased in Venice, vandalised and removed in 1954 and replaced by the present bronze boy with bird and goose; dedicated April 24, 1924; owner Armour Hills Homes Association. And the Romanelli Island Fountain at W. 69th, Edgevale and Wornall marks the entrance to the former Romanelli Gardens subdivision, now part of Armour Fields; purchased in Florence, Italy in 1925 and made by Romano Romanelli in travertine, three cherubs around an upturned goose feeding a scalloped bowl and two ram’s-head spouts into a 30-foot pool; installed 1925, restored 1993, conserved with a new sculpture by Robert Ojeda and Marretta Kennedy in 2007; owner Armour Fields Homes Association. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

8. City of Fountains Foundation — “Romany Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/romany-fountain-south-plaza/; “Ward Parkway Mirror Pool Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/ward-parkway-mirror-pool-fountain-south-plaza/; “Stratford Gardens Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/stratford-gardens-fountain/ — assert, respectively: the Romany Fountain at Ward Parkway and Romany Road, a pedestal fountain with two saucers pouring through the pursed lips of children’s or angels’ faces, once flanked by a sunken garden, installed 1930, owner KCMO Parks & Recreation; the Ward Parkway Mirror Pool Fountain occupying almost the whole median block between W. 61st Terrace and W. 62nd Street, built 1924 as part of a Ward Parkway beautification effort, originally a reflecting pool also used for miniature boating and ice skating, renovated 1965 with three sets of spray rings, designer Edward Buehler Delk, owner KCMO Parks & Recreation, with a plaque marking Ward Parkway’s 2012 designation as a Great Street by the American Planning Association; and the Stratford Gardens Fountain at W. 63rd Street and State Line Road, dating to 1927, its lower basin an antique Carrara marble horse trough reportedly first used in a public square in Rome with a smaller human-drinking trough above, restored by the Stratford Gardens Homes Association and returned to service in spring 2017. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

9. City of Fountains Foundation — “49/63 Neighborhood Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/49-63-neighborhood-fountain/ and “American War Mothers Memorial Fountain” https://cityoffountains.org/american-war-mothers-memorial-fountain/ — assert: the 49/63 Neighborhood Fountain in a green space at E. 58th Street and Lydia Avenue, bordered east by The Paseo, in the 49-63 Neighborhood Coalition area, brick and concrete with water running a course set by raised bricks, designed by artist Will Nettleship, 1997, owner KCMO Parks & Recreation. And the American War Mothers Memorial Fountain in the traffic circle at E. Meyer Boulevard and The Paseo, an 18-foot rectangular limestone obelisk with a spout in each face, dedicated to those who served in World War I, marked with a blue star for the serving, gold for the dead and white for the wounded, the War Mothers’ emblem and “1917” and “1918” on the west face, sabers and eagles carved on each side; designer Edward Buehler Delk; installed June 1, 1942; one of two solar-powered KCMO Parks fountains, its panel in Dunn Park across the street; owner KCMO Parks & Recreation. (The Foundation’s regional gallery blurb gives the erection year as 1942 in one place and 1941 in another; the fountain’s own page gives “Installed June 1, 1942.”) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴