Cerub's Return Marks Completion of Fountain Restoration

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

At long last, the cherubs on the Robert Anderson Fountain have been reunited.

It’s been nearly a year since restoration of the historic fountain, once a mainstay on the Anderson County Square downtown and now resting on the grounds of the Anderson County Museum, was completed.

The standing cherub’s return marks the final chapter of the fountain’s restoration. The lighting within the structure was added earlier this year.

In 2001, the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the Clemson University Restoration Institute in North Charleston - the group that restored the Civil War-era submarine the Hunley - took on the process of restoring the fountain to its original glory. But one of the cherubs was in particularly bad condition and took months of additional restoration.

Built in 1906, the fountain was a mainstay on the county square in downtown Anderson for decades and was moved into storage and nearly lost when the "new" courthouse was built in 1993. From there, the fountain's journey grows a bit hazy. For a while it, may have been in storage, but some reports say most of the disassembled pieces of the fountain were discovered in a field and recovered and moved to the museum.  

Parts of the fountain were constructed in Anderson by the Anderson Foundry and Steel Company while the Cherubs were ordered from a company in New York. Minus the water basin, the fountain weighs in at about 5,500 pounds and is just over 16-feet tall. According to the museum, the fountain is considered one of the first outdoor sculptures in the world to have underwater lighting.

Named for Revolutionary War Colonel and State Militia General Robert Anderson, the Civic Association of Anderson, led by President Pearl Fant, organized the effort to build the fountain created. The designers of the piece were T. A. Wigington and C. C. Cole.