Fountain of Time Chicago: The Monument That Captures a Century Along the Midway Plaisance

Along the Midway Plaisance on Chicago’s South Side, where open green space stitches together Hyde Park and Woodlawn, stands one of the city’s most quietly powerful landmarks: the Fountain of Time. Stretched low and wide near 60th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, the monument does not rise above the landscape so much as settle into it, as if it has always been there, watching.

Completed in 1922 by renowned sculptor Lorado Taft, the Fountain of Time spans roughly 126 feet and features more than 100 life-size figures drifting in a single, continuous procession. At its eastern end stands a hooded figure representing Time itself, unmoving and impassive, while humanity flows past in all stages of life. Children, lovers, laborers, soldiers, and elders move forward together, their individual identities softened by motion and purpose.

The inspiration comes from a line by poet Austin Dobson: “Time goes, you say? Ah no! Time stays, we go.” The quote is often associated with the monument, but it hardly needs explanation. The sculpture communicates its meaning immediately and viscerally. Time is fixed. We are fleeting.

The Fountain of Time occupies a unique place in Chicago history. It was conceived as part of a grand civic vision connected to the City Beautiful movement, which sought to elevate public life through monumental art and urban design. Originally, Taft imagined the sculpture as one half of a pair of fountains marking both ends of the Midway Plaisance. Only one was ever completed, leaving the project intentionally unfinished, a fitting fate for a work centered on impermanence.

Constructed from cast concrete rather than marble or bronze, the sculpture has weathered a century of Midwestern seasons. Its surface bears the marks of time itself: erosion, cracks, softening edges. Restoration efforts over the years have preserved the structure, but they have not erased its vulnerability. In many ways, that fragility is the point. The Fountain of Time is not about permanence. It is about passage.

For Chicago, the monument reflects the city’s deeper character. It is democratic rather than triumphant, philosophical rather than flashy. Unlike statues that celebrate conquest or power, the Fountain of Time honors ordinary human experience. Everyone is included. No one is exalted. It mirrors a city built by movement, migration, labor, and reinvention.

On a national level, the sculpture stands as one of the most ambitious figurative public artworks in the United States. It represents an early 20th-century American willingness to wrestle with existential themes in civic space. At a time when the country was defining its identity on the world stage, Taft offered a reminder that progress and loss often travel together.

Today, the Fountain of Time is both a landmark and a secret. Joggers pass it along the Midway’s paths. University of Chicago students cross nearby on their way to class. Visitors stumble upon it unexpectedly, drawn in by its scale and stillness. It reveals itself slowly, rewarding those who stop and look.

In a city famous for architectural boldness and skyline drama, the Fountain of Time offers something rarer: reflection. It does not tell Chicago’s story directly. It tells everyone’s. And in doing so, it remains one of the most meaningful monuments not just in the city, but in the country.

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