Your feet rest above the artesian well beneath this fountain in the Court Square–Dexter Avenue Historic District, built in 1885. Built in 1885 on top of an artesian well that native Alabamians used long before the coming of European settlers, this fountain gathers layers of the city's story beneath your feet. By June 1853 the well had reached 475 feet and flowed at two gallons per minute, a reminder of the quiet technical details that sustained human habit here for generations.
The site is also where Alabama Town and New Philadelphia grew together to form what would be called Montgomery, and later became the central location of Montgomery's bustling slave trade — a past that lingers even though most of the historical buildings have been torn down. Look up at the figures: the fountain contains statues based on Greek mythology, and on top stands a statue of Hebe, the Greek goddess. Once attributed to Frederick MacMonnies, that claim was questioned in 1935 when the director of the Alabama Archives and History asked him and he denied the work.
Notice the fountain's aluminum statues and the stretch nearby where so many historical buildings were torn down.