Burnside Fountain

The Burnside Fountain is a non-functioning drinking fountain at the southeast corner of Worcester Common in Worcester, Massachusetts. It consists of two parts, a pink granite basin, and a bronze statue of a young boy riding a sea turtle. The Burnside Fountain was commissioned in 1905 by the city of Worcester—the prior year, Harriet F. Burnside had bequeathed US$5,000 (equivalent to about $179, 000 in 2025) to create a fountain to provide fresh water for horses and dogs in the memory of her father, a prominent lawyer. The basin was designed by architect Henry Bacon, who later designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the figure was created by sculptor Charles Y. Harvey. Harvey died by suicide before finishing the sculpture, and Sherry Edmundson Fry completed the bronze. The fountain was installed in 1912 in Central Square, then moved in 1969 to its current location on Worcester Common. In 1970, the statue was stolen, and was re-installed two years later. An attempted theft occurred in 2004. The bronze is officially named Boy with a Turtle but is known to locals as Turtle Boy. Turtle Boy has become an unofficial mascot for Worcester, much in the same way Manneken Pis is for Brussels. The Burnside Fountain's popularity is derived mostly from viewers' risqué misinterpretation of the statue. Over its 114-year existence, it has been referenced in stories and songs, as well as having a music contest and a microbrew named after it.

The Burnside Fountain consists of two parts, the basin and the sculpture. The pink granite basin is rectangular and has four large bowls, two on either end, carved into its top. These bowls were originally designed as water troughs for horses, and a smaller, lower, bowl located on the rear of the fountain was designed for dogs. The bronze sculpture sits on a circular base in the middle of the basin. The sculpture is officially known as Boy with a Turtle, as its figure is of a young boy, in the nude, riding a sea turtle. In 1986, the Worcester municipal parks and recreation department described the statue with the sentence, "The boy holding the turtle, his hair flying, a sly smile on his face, is charming and dis

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