Crowd Cheers as Geneseo’s Bear Fountain Returns

GENESEO – The bear fountain is back on Main Street after more than a year of repairs.

Almost 130 years to the day that the original was installed, the new bear fountain arrived on Main Street Wednesday morning. A Village work crew, Rock of Ages and Moorland Studios are assembled the fountain. The GeneseeSun.com streamed the project live from 7 a.m. to nearly noon from the roof of our building, 75 Main Street, on our Facebook page here.

“The symbol of our community is being restored,” said Kurt Cylke, member of the Association for the Preservation of Geneseo (APOG) that commissioned 3D imaging that made the fountain restoration possible after its unfortunate encounter with a milk truck in April 2016. “No matter who you are, how old you are, what your politics are, the bear is a symbol of helping others. It’s delightful that it’s back here to remind people of that sense of community.”

A crane loaded the basin of the original fountain onto the back of a truck. The old fountain left to cheers, clapping and waves goodbye from a crowd of over 30 people who had gathered to watch the project.

Once the bronze bear, Emmeline, was back in place, over 60 spectators applauded.

The fountain will now sit exactly as the original did for nearly the past 130 years.

Granite for the new one was cut from Stony Creek Quarry in Connecticut and chiseled by Rock of Ages in Vermont.

This was the same quarry from which Richard Morris, who designed the bear fountain, found the granite for the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Main Street was closed from about 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. while workers assembled the fountain.