Prismatic Electric Fountain

The centerpiece of Denver City Park is the cool, rippled surface of Ferril Lake. And the crown jewel of Ferril Lake is a historic, glowing fountain that’s been around—in some form or another—for more than a century.

During the daytime, plumes of mist shoot up to 90 feet in the air. But visit at night, and you might get to see the fountain in, well, a whole new light. Beneath each water jet sits a computerized LED display capable of saturating the plumes in vivid pinks, blues, yellows, and greens.

The fountain was first installed with a very specific intention: to prove to America that Denver was a modern, sophisticated city. Back then, Colorado’s capital was considered a backwater mining outpost. So when the Democratic National Convention announced it was coming to town, then-Mayor Robert Speer knew he had to do some serious work to change public perception. One of his first orders of business was installing a powerful display of artistic and technological mastery: a multicolored, electrically lit fountain. To pull it off, he hired Frederic Darlington, an inventor and engineer who first started experimenting with electric fountains in the 1890s—just a few years after electric street lamps first arrived in Denver. The resulting masterwork featured more than 2,000 individual nozzles. Plates of colored glass in nine different hues supplied the color.

The Prismatic Electric Fountain successfully wowed visitors, but it wasn’t the only spectacle imported for the Democratic National Convention. A sizable brass band greeted delegates at the train station, and, later in the week, organizers trucked in snow from the mountains so visitors could engage in a downtown snowball fight. 

Over the years, the original Prismatic Electric Fountain fell into disrepair and out of use. But in 2008, to honor the return of the Democratic National Convention and their then-candidate Barack Obama, Denver spent more than $3 million rebuilding the fountain. Today, it features new technology and plumbing. However, its size, shape—and unfailing ability to delight its viewers—remain just the same.