Buckingham Fountain

Introduction

Buckingham Fountain - the Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain - is the great circular fountain at the centre of Grant Park, at Columbus Drive and Congress Parkway, long regarded as Chicago's "front door". Kate S. Buckingham funded it with $750,000 in 1927 as a memorial to her brother Clarence; architect Edward H. Bennett designed it and the French sculptor Marcel F. Loyau made the figures. It was formally dedicated on August 26, 1927 before some 50,000 people. Built of pink Georgia marble and bronze in a tiered Rococo "wedding cake" form modelled on the Latona Fountain at Versailles, the fountain allegorises the adjacent Lake Michigan. Its central jet reaches 150 feet (about 46 m) during a display, and eight bronze seahorses in four sets stand for the four lake states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. It normally runs from early May to mid-October, 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. daily, with a 20-minute major display every hour on the hour from 9:00 a.m.; after dusk 820 lights add a music show, with the last display at 10:35 p.m. and shutdown near 10:55 p.m. The fountain is closed in winter but dressed in festival lights. From May 30, 2026, 100 movable chairs ring the basin through September. It is free to visit and sits on the classic walking route between the Art Institute, Shedd Aquarium and Millennium Park.

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