The Gordon and Kathleen Musgrove Fountain   Click Photo to enlarge

The Historic Prattville Fountain was a gift to the City of Prattville from Gordon and Kathleen Musgrove. They wanted to give back to the city they both loved. They were both gracious people of Prattville's history, and they both live on with this beautiful centerpiece of Historic Downtown Prattville. The City of Prattville has set a plaque, at the fountain, to designate the fountain as a gift of Gordon and Kathleen.

The Gordon and Kathleen Musgrove Fountain. 

The fountain was constructed by Robinson Foundry in Alexander City. This fountain is unique in that it has a cast iron pool most large fountains have a masonry pool. Estimated cost was around $30,000.00.

Fountain location 1910 Post Card Railroad bridge and first Iron bridge in back ground. Click on photo to enlarge

How the Pratt Bust was made!...By Tommy Brown  

I know "Who Cares", but there is a story behind it. I was working on a clay bust of Daniel Pratt about the time the plans for the Prattville Reunion started coming together. The Reunion committee had big plans for the promotion of Prattville. I showed Nancy Hefner the clay and she urged me to finish. I submitted a drawing to the committee 6/30/87. The bust was cast and finished in November of 1989. I have heard a lot of complaints about the flatness of this bust and it has no beard, so here is the reason. My first thought was to cast the bust in iron because of Pratt's involvement in the Birmingham history. His likeness should be at the time of his building Prattville. I made the clay as a relief to easily slide out of a mold. I knew the iron would finish heavy with less detail. The big problem we had was lack of money (as always). My work cost nothing, but the stone work, mold, metal and pouring would cost more than we had. The committee changed the metal to bronze and found the money. The stone and bronze design idea was taken from a Lincoln bust I cut out of a magazine. The Plaque was inscribed with Pratt's own signature. The signature was from an archive document from Continental Eagle archives.

Click Photos to Enlarge

1. First bust at art school (WC Fields)  2. Proposal Drawing 3. Lincoln Statue 4. Pratt Engraving 1850's 5. Start of Clay Bust

6. Making mold from clay bust  7. Setting the mold in sand  8. Connecting pouring mold

9.& 10. pouring the bronze into the mold 11. Cooling the mold  12.& 13. Separating  the mold

14. A hot Mr. Pratt     15. Me & Dan  16. Unveiling day with four lovely Pratt family members Jule Bugay, Merrill Carter, Jule Smith and Dora Kleinschmidt.  

The casting was done at Robinson Foundry in Alexander City. A high school class mate Roger Yates, in some of these photos, set the mold for the Pratt bust. Roger was killed in an industrial accident at Robinson Iron a few years later. Robinson foundry is know around the world and is presently working on the Vulcan Statue for Birmingham. www.robinson-iron.com Check out the Vulcan progress, the largest Iron statue in the world. This project was one of the projects said to be a waste of money by Senator John McCain. You should take the time to review some of the Pork Barrel projects he has supported for his state of Arizona.

  05/09/2007