Valley Girl Views: The "Limestone Punch Bowl" - Selinsgrove's Short Lived Fountain

In several old photos of Selinsgrove, this very large bowl sits in the middle of the street. It was the center of many town activities, from Christmas parties to college pranks. After World War I, men lifted a saxon car onto the fountain. During the 1919 Welcome Home parade, a platform was erected over the fountain for speeches to be made. Almost immediately after it was erected, petitions were made to have it removed - but it remained until 1925.

A hole was being dug to install the fountain in June of 1910. The Selinsgrove Times-Tribune described it as a "limestone punchbowl", and a danger to drivers.

" Fountain Placed at Market and Pine Streets Dangerous to Drivers

JUDGE McCLURE'S GENEROSITY TOO LAVISH FOR SAFETY OF TRAVELING PUBLIC.

"Judge McClure proved himself this week to be entirely too generous to this borough; at least The Times is backed in that opinion by a majority of Selinsgrovers. In the original franchise for the Selinsgrove Water Works company it was specified that a public fountain should be supplied the borough gratis by the corporation, but, like many other matters this one was overlooked in the "old water works days" However when Judge Mc Clure obtain control of the local system he set about to improve the plant, and he has made it one of the best in the State. An excellent fire pressure is maintained, and the purity of the water tanks third of that public service in Pennsylvania,

Judge Harold Murray McClure

Born in Lewisburg Pa, Judge McClure financed his legal education by playing professional baseball. He married Margaret Focht, the sister of Congressman B.K. Focht.

Read more about Judge McClure here

"But this fountain business is too much of the good thing. The proffer of Judge McClure to furnish such a watering place was accepted by council two years ago, but when operations were begun for placing it at Market and Pine streets many people set up such a howl that the idea was abandoned temporarily. Most every person thought the proposition was as dead as a door nail, and they were glad in their belief.

That's why there was so much consternation here Monday when a number of men began digging up the street at Market and Pine for the purpose of placing in the middle of the square this old iron fountain, a structure about six feet in diameter and solid enough to stop the most frisky horse or speedy automobile.

The fountain in itself is an excellent idea, but its location is indeed the most unsatisfactory one possible in the borough. The street is less than forty feet in width at the intersection and that is entirely too narrow a place to erect a fountain six feet in diameter. The "limestone punch" stand will be in the middle of the thoroughfare, and some night, when the electric light, is not illuminating, the fountain will halt a strange driving party or so and the borough will foot the damage bill.

Why not move the structure west on Pine street to the public school building and locate it along the curb there? That location would be accessible very easily and at the same time not dangerous."

A rebuttal was printed on October 11th 1911 [see article "From Another Viewpoint" at the bottom of this page] which said that no more suitable place had been suggested, that the fountain had not shown itself to be a dangerous obstruction, that it had not been the occasion of any costly casualties, and that the "main street of this borough is not intended to be a speed way for automobiles or fast horses."

1912, the Fountain In The Snow

The Middle Creek electric company had agreed to place an incandescent light under the fountain to help make it more visible.

It was noted in the same rebuttal that the fountain was less than 8 feet in diameter, and that to move it would cost several hundred dollars that the borough was "not in a position to meet".

The Banner Reads "Children's Week", April 1922

On October 11th 1911, The Selinsgrove paper reported that 98 had signed a petition to move the fountain, but the fountain remained at the intersection of Pine and Market for another 14 years.

Soldiers headed to a A 'Joint Instruction Camp', held in Monroe Township are seen enjoying the fresh water from the town fountain (right), some having removed their shirts, to the dismay of local residents. Problems were described as 'minimal', however, during their encampment, July 16-25, 1914.

In 1918, the fountain was the collection point for Rubber for the War Effort.

During the 1919 Welcome Home Parade in Selinsgrove, a platform was erected over the fountain, and from it the addresses were given.

In 1924 the Selinsgrove Moose erected a Christmas tree at the fountain, using it as their base of operations for distributing candies and oranges to the children.

Welcome Banner for the Penns Creek Massacre Anniversary Event, 1915

A 1950 retrospective described various activities at the fountain over the years:

"Market street north from Pine in 1910, presented a peaceful scene. Horses were tied to hitching posts, where today parking meters exasperate automobile owners, and add to the town coffer. Belgian bricks paved three a blocks of the business section on Market street. Ten years later, the center of the square stood the town fountain, a gift to the boro late Harold M. McClure, of Lewisburg, president of the Selinsgrove Water Supply Company.

At the fountain, the late Grant E. Bolig, who resided on the southwest corner of Market and Pine streets, watered his cows. There Chief of Police Harvey Romig rode bareback that his team of bays might quaff the aqua pura. There, too, the farmers halted their horses after a long, dusty drive to town. At a convenient level below the large water basin was a small one, where the village canines were wont to drink.

The fountain played its part in the activities of Susquehanna University as well as the village. The heroes at the first commencement exercises, following Word War I, gathered around the fountain in the wee small hours and gave an exhibit of their manly strength. One of the alumni drove to his Alma Mater in a Saxon. That small car was lifted by the men mighty muscle and placed on top of the fountain.

From there it was removed by the town authorities on commencement day, just before the academic parade marched from the campus to Trinity Lutheran Church for graduation exercises. Among the Saxon lifters are numbered today leading ministers, physicians, bankers and teachers all men of prominence in their respective communities. Thereafter for many years the nightshirt parade marched from campus to the fountain, where the Freshmen were forced to drink like cattle."

In October of 1925, A Manufactured of a three color light was to install one of their "best apparatuses at the fountain for 30 days free demonstration."

On December 7th 1925, an ordinance was passed for the establishing of a signal light at Market and Pine Streets, and for the removal of the water fountain. The new traffic light utilized the base of the former fountain.

According to a walking tour description, "After 75 years in storage at the Borough shed on Sassafras Street, the fountain, minus its feet, was reinstalled in front of the Borough offices along West Pine St. in 2001, only to be removed and returned to storage in 2011, when the construction of the new Borough offices and Gelnett Library began."