Farewell to Orpheus

2008 Special Events

Farewell to Orpheus

For 80 years, since 1925, the Orpheus fountain has been the centerpiece of the Vanderbilt Rose garden. The statue of Orpheus was a present from Frederick's sister, Lila. In Greek mythology, Orpheus was the son of Calliope and was the greatest musician and poet in the world. His music was so beautiful, it was able to charm wild beasts, and birds and even coax inanimate objects to move. The statue represents Orpheus holding his lyre, playing to charm the roses and all visitors to the garden. Orpheus

After the National Park service took over the estate in 1940, they were not able to keep the garden in repair. The years of weather and pollution have taken their toll on the statue. The fountain has not worked in many years and the bowl under Orpheus is extremely eroded. There was also some concern that if the statue should fall over, it could injure a visitor. Therefore, the NPS decided it was time to retire Orpheus to a more protected environment.

In late May 2005, the NPS assembled a team to carefully remove the statue, bowl and pedestal from the Rose garden and transport them to storage. The following pages show pictures of this process taking place. The FWVGA wishes to thank Bill Urbin of the NPS for taking the pictures and providing them to us for the web site.

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This page updated
23 Mar 2008