The “pineapple fountain” at Lake Cliff Park now sprays four arches of water across its 18-inch-deep cement pool. The fountain, built in 1931, had been out of commission for awhile because the park department found that its original pipes were leaking.
Bond money from 2006 paid for Sunbelt Pools to replace the copper pipes with PVC, a job which cost $5,000.
About $1 million in bond money went to rehab the two Works Progress Administration-era pergolas and a pavilion. The money also paid to spiffy up some of the playground equipment.
Park board member Barbara Barbee, who is a founder of the nonprofit Friends of Oak Cliff Parks, says a historically inaccurate fence around the fountain had to be taken down about five or six years ago. Also, the bottom of the fountain had been painted blue, also historically inaccurate, she says.
Barbee and the park friends have been working since 2007 to create rose gardens similar to ones planted there in the early 1900s.
“For that garden to be complete, that fountain had to work,” she says.
Now it does. But don’t get any bright ideas, cliffsters. No swimming is allowed.
Oak Cliff celebrates Lake Cliff’s 100th anniversary as a city park on Sept. 20.
