PORTLAND – Work to improve the Pullen Fountain on Federal Street began this month, with completion expected this winter and a ceremony to mark the restoration next spring.

New granite seating around the Stanley Pullen Memorial Fountain will help prevent drivers from parking too close and protect it from snow plowing equipment in winter.

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The Stanley Pullen Fountain, named for an animal-protection advocate, is an oasis for carriage horses in the Old Port. 2001 Press Herald file

The fountain, which is used as a horse watering trough, will have an enhanced seating area, and the granite base and the plumbing will be repaired.

The fountain, between the rear of Central Fire Station and the federal courthouse, is named for Stanley Thomas Pullen, a former president of the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals. The fountain is often used to water the horses that pull carriages through the Old Port.

The fountain is at the edge of the sidewalk and protrudes into Federal Street, so it’s vulnerable to passing vehicles.

Money for the project is provided by the Portland Public Art Committee and the Margaret E. Burnham Charitable Trust. Thomas M. Pierce, trustee for the Burnham trust, donated $7,500 from the trust upon discovering that the fountain had been designed by Margaret Burnham’s father, George Burnham.

A Public Art Committee member, Tony Muench, who is a landscape architect, contributed design services. Jonathan Taggart, a conservator who works on the city’s public art collection, will direct much of the work on the fountain. 

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at: emurphy@pressherald.com

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