The Coronation Memorial Fountain was built in 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII, and also commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Borough of Palmerston North, and the achievement of city status in 1930.
It was originally sited near the middle of The Square in front of where the War Memorial now stands. After the construction of the War Memorial in 1926, the Fountain was painstakingly dismantled and moved to the middle of the 'Beautifying Society' pond in the south-west corner of The Square in front of the CM Ross building (now the City Library). It remained there until 2005 when it was relocated by crane to the north-west corner of The Square, near the Ladies' Rest. Here it was restored, stripped of years of accumulated paint and the fountain mechanism restored to allow water to flow once more.
Designed by a Napier architect named C. A. Vautier and built by local masons S. Dowdall and Co., the Fountain is constructed of Oamaru stone and bluestone and is listed by the Historic Places Trust as a Category II Historic Place.
See Ian Matheson City Archives Research File A175/72/3 for more information. Beyond can be seen the Bank of New Zealand on the corner of The Square and Rangitikei Street.
