Old Main Fountain

 If one exits the building of Old Main from the North side today, walks down the grand stairs past the granite base and large columns, one will take one of two sidewalks, and probably not even pay attention to what is now an overgrown flower bed obscured by juniper bushes. If one walks across the grass, approaches the fountain, pushes the juniper bushes aside, it reveals an old decaying concrete structure, large cracks forming down it sides, small pieces missing, and a general lack of evidence to its previous life.  

    Once upon a time at Concordia this fountain was just that, a fully functioning fountain. In general if one where to go about attempting to research this fountain, the first thing that becomes apparent is a general lack of name.  The closest to being named was during the Old Main naming controversy of the '60s, when the paper mockingly asked if it was going to be named Bogstad Fountain becuase Old Main was to be renamed Bogstad Hall. ⁽¹⁾ Outside of this one brief incident though, the fountain remains unnamed.

    The fountain albeit unnamed served as many things to many people thoroughout its history at Concordia. An interesting story from the '20s is that of a now defunct fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Sigma. They had a “scum week”, in which pledges did various clean up tasks around campus, one of which included shining all the rocks in the fountain. ⁽²⁾  This story also gives some hint to what the caption on the photograph may mean. An easy interpretation is that he is waiting for someone a lover or maybe a friend. Another is that the stance he is in, typical of someone waiting to have his shoe shined, may be saying he is waiting for a pledge from one of the various fraternities to do so. 

The fountain was built around 1907 as a part of campus improvements around Old Main, which included a sidewalk which can be seen in the picture which leads to 7^th street. (3)  As to when the fountain was shut off, there is again a lack of documents but this is not all that surprising; as one article pointed out in the Concordian, over the years there have been major undocumented changes to old main. (4) The roof was redone, the old flag pole went missing, and a large stone globe on top also vanished, with little to no documentation of why. (4) Leaving even more of an air of mystery, to a fountain time forgot. 

1. Ward, Wendy. “Frosh Frenetics.” The Concordian, October 12, 1966. 2.
2. “A.E.S. Initiates Enjoy Scumming.” The Concordian,   October 23, 1925. 3.
3. Engelhardt, Carroll. "On Firm Foundation Grounded: The First Century of Concordia College (1891-1991)." Moorhead: Concordia College, 1991. 53.
4. Wassberg, Sarah. "Grand Old Main 100 years on Firm Foundation." The Concodian, September 22, 2006. 6.

This essay was written by Bjorn Altenburg.