This fountain is a memorial to Mary Schenley, heir to the O’Hara glass fortune and donor of the vast tract of land that became Schenley Park. It is remarkable as a work of art, and almost as remarkable for being one of the relatively few fountains in the world built above a buried bridge. There was once a hollow here; an arch bridge crossed the hollow at this point. The hollow was filled in, but if you dig far enough at this spot, you will find the Bellefield Bridge.
The sculpture, A Song to Nature, is by Victor David Brenner, and old Pa Pitt is going to make a remarkable offer to his readers. If you ever meet Father Pitt in person, he will give you for your very own another famous sculpture in metal by the same great artist. He can make this remarkable offer because Victor David Brenner’s most famous work is the face of Abraham Lincoln on the United States penny.
In this sculpture, the female figure represents Sweet Humanity playing her song to the lazy earth-god Pan, who responds in a way that we may perhaps judge from his face.
