The Ellen S. Clark Hope Plaza Fountain is a calming oasis that anchors the Plaza. The sleek, elegant structure quietly animates its surroundings with reflected light and the sound of water continuously flowing over its edge.
A circular platform floats over the pool, allowing visitors to be surrounded by a bowl of waterlilies and to gain a sense of lightness, as if floating on water.
About the Platform
Its rim displays the Emily Dickinson poem “Hope is the Thing With Feathers,” honoring the importance of hope.
Hope is the Thing with Feathers
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
— Emily Dickinson
At night, fiber-optic lights under the platform re-create the night sky on Dec. 25, 1959, the birthday of benefactor Ellen Clark, in whose honor the plaza is named.
About the Pool
• 70 feet in diameter
• Fed by a 4,000-gallon reservoir
• Lilypads are placed every spring