BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff After sitting dry for years, the “Light Dispelling Darkness” fountain in Roosevelt Park in Edison has been restored. EDISON — After many years of inactivity, a treasured old relic was turned on Monday.
Roosevelt Park’s historic fountain, Light Dispelling Darkness, is shiny and spewing water again, after a complete mechanical and artistic restoration.
At a dedication ceremony Monday, officials and arts enthusiasts turned on the fountain for the first time since its renovation was completed. The fountain, which cost a total of $403,000 and took about a year and a half to restore, has been an artistic and historical centerpiece in Roosevelt Park since 1936.
The ceramic globe-topped symbol of man’s desire to combat evil through knowledge and science was crafted by sculptor Waylande Gregory, who also created “The Fountain of the Atom” and other pieces that marked the entrance of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
The fountain is particularly significant for Edison.
The fountain is seen as a “tribute to Thomas Edison’s industrial progress,” and as such is a source of pride, council Vice President Parag Patel said.
Its light symbolism “embodies Edison’s accomplishments and symbolism of the all-consuming positive power of light over darkness,” said Anna Aschkenes, of the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Association. “Its metaphor has very powerful meaning.”
The fountain’s central shaft is 15 feet tall and stands in the center of a circular pool 40 feet in diameter, Aschkenes said.
A 3.5-ton glazed, terra cotta globe sits at the top of the shaft. Three vertical symbols circle the shaft and represent knowledge and science’s triumphs.
Six ceramic sculptures that represent war, pestilence, famine, death, greed and materialism circle the bottom of the fountain.
The mammoth size and imagery of the fountain enhance the power of the metaphor “Light Dispelling Darkness,” Aschkenes said.
“The metaphor is very powerful through the physical image,” she added. “It shows how knowledge enlightens us and triumphs in dispelling ignorance and intolerance in society.”
That meaning correlates directly to another reason why and how the fountain, which sits near Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory, was crafted.
Gregory’s fountain project was supported by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was created to stimulate the World War II economy by creating jobs.
Gregory was WPA’s director of sculptures and ceramics in New Jersey.
The fountain is believed to be the only outdoor sculpture in the state that was crafted as part of President Roosevelt’s WPA, Aschkene said.
Roosevelt Park was named for FDR because the park was created through the efforts of the WPA, Mayor George A. Spadoro said.
The county paid for almost all of the $403,000 restoration costs.
County Director of Parks and Recreation Ralph Albanir said there were two distinct components of the work: artistic and mechanical.
Cultural Preservation and Restoration Inc, New York City, completed the artistic restoration. The company provided artists and experts in artistic restoration, not renovation.
“Nothing was changed, just restored exactly the way it was crafted,” he said.
CME Associates, Parlin, completed all structural and mechanical work. The engineers coordinated all efforts to fix pumps and make sure the fountain stood tall once it was artistically restored, he said.
“It is a very important work of art in New Jersey,” Albanir said. “Through this process, I found that the artist himself, Gregory, was probably one of the greatest ceramic sculptors in history, not only the era during which he sculpted ‘Light Dispelling Darkness.’ ”
The contractors worked very closely with the county’s Cultural and Heritage Commission to ensure that the work done was as true to form as Gregory himself conceived it, he said.
“We tried to preserve the artwork rather than re-create it,” said Albanir.
“This was a conservation project rather than re-creation,” Aschkenes said.
The county Cultural and Historic Commission managed to secure a small, $5,000 grant from a federal program called Save Outdoor Sculpture (SOS).
Five years ago, SOS conducted a nationwide survey, state by state, of outdoor sculpture.
“So much was found to have been around for 50 to 70 years, and there was no way to take care of it,” she said. “So SOS created this small pool of money.”
The Cultural and Heritage Commission spent a good part of the past year researching Gregory through his estate, Aschkenes said.
They found original sculptures and renderings, including renderings of “Light Dispelling Darkness” and exactly how it was conceived, she said.
The executor of his estate, Bianca Brown, knew Gregory when he was alive and gave the committee members access to the records.