What is Pratt’s smallest park?
Who created the bronze sculpture in the lobby of Pratt Public Library?
How are the two related?
Stumped? A plaque, authorized by the Pratt City Commission, will explain that the pelican sculpture by Bruce Moore was the centerpiece of Pelican Fountain Park, located at the curve of Rochester Street near Pratt Regional Medical Center.
The sculpture was commissioned in 1932 by Walter Pedigo. His mother-in-law, Mrs. C.A. Sloan, made a $1,000 donation for beautification of the city, as a memorial tribute to her husband, a community leader who developed the first Pratt telephone system.
Pedigo turned to his boyhood friend, Bruce Moore, by then a renowned sculptor, to produce the fountain. The design had been awarded first prize at the Sculptors National Academy of Design in New York, and the Ellen P. Speyer award for best animal sculpture.
Moore selected blue spruce trees to surround the fountain and pelican. Some of the trees still remain, parks superintendent Mark Eckhoff said, although they have been damaged by ice storms and insects.
In 1974, funded by a gift to the city from Doris Luther, the fountain was illuminated and rebuilt. A bronze plaque was placed in the park bearing names of those who had made major contributions to the Pratt park system.
In 1993 the sculpture was again refurbished and, on the advice of an art consultant in Wichita, moved to the Pratt Public Library to protect it from the elements and vandalism.
