It’s Fountain Day in Kansas City: What to know about the local tradition
In early April every year, Kansas City lives up to its “City of Fountains” nickname by turning on 48 publicly owned fountains for the season.
The tradition honors more than 200 fountains lining the city’s courtyards, plazas and boulevards. In 2026, Fountain Day is Wednesday, April 15.
FULL STORY: It’s Fountain Day in Kansas City. Here’s how the city got its landmark-inspired nickname
Here are key takeaways:
• Kansas City’s first fountains were built in 1899 by landscape architect George Kessler, who was enlisted by the Kansas City Board of Park Commissioners in 1893 to devise a system of parks, boulevards, statues and fountains.
• The fountains grew out of the City Beautiful Movement, an urban planning philosophy focused on bringing more “beautiful natural scenery” to major American cities in the late 19th century. They also served a practical purpose — Kansas Citians used them as troughs and drinking basins for horses during the 1890s.
• Kansas City is now said to have more fountains than Rome, according to KC Parks.
• Harold and Peggy Rice founded the City of Fountains Foundation in 1973 to raise funds to build new fountains and maintain existing ones. The foundation and KC Parks work together to manage the city’s publicly owned fountains.
• Notable fountains include the Henry Wollman Bloch Fountain in front of Union Station, which features 232 water jets creating a choreographed show every 90 minutes, and the Crown Center Square Fountain, which shoots water up to 60 feet in the air set to recordings of the Kansas City Symphony.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.
