The granite for the fountain’s base. (Photo/APOG via Facebook)
GENESEO – The pieces are slowly but steadily coming together for the bear fountain to return to Main Street Geneseo this summer.
According to the Association for the Preservation of Geneseo (APOG), Stony Creek Quarry in Connecticut will soon cut the granite that will eventually form the new base of the bear fountain.
“The skilled craftsmen at Stony Creek are cutting the granite block for the basin,” posted APOG. “Note horizontal red mark half way up ledge. Weather permitting, this week they will make the horizontal cut.”
The bigger challenge has actually proven to be locating the right chunk of brown sandstone, or ‘brownstone,’ for the bear to sit upon. Sculpture purists call this the ‘capital.’ In December, a foam pattern was digitally cut using the scan APOG commissioned in 2011. The pattern and the original brownstone relayed at Adam Ross cut stone before heading to the carver in Vermont.
“Some prep work on the new brown stone and off to the carver in Vermont,” posted APOG to Facebook in December 2016.
Geneseo Mayor Richard Hatheway said that if all goes as planned, the bear fountain will be repaired in the summer of 2017.
A truck struck the 128 year old fountain at Main and Center street in April 2016.
The foam pattern for the bear fountain’s pedestal, or ‘capital,’ with the broken original beneath. (Photo/APOG via Facebook)