Vandals strike Congress Park
Spa City police scan footage after historic fountain toppled again
For a third time, the Morrissey Fountain in Congress Park has been damaged by vandals.
Saratoga Springs police said they are looking for three men, caught on video surveillance, who toppled the historic fountain at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.
“We don’t have enough to (identify) someone at this point,” said Lt. Robert Jillson, the city police spokesman. “We have three males walking into Congress Park off of Spring Street and then (video cameras) pick them up in the fountain. We are trying to backtrack to get some decent (video).”
He also said when the police are certain of the suspects, they will release the images to the public to help identify them.
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks on historic monuments in the city’s iconic park. The fountain has been vandalized twice in the last decade. In 2013, it was defaced. In 2018, it was toppled and left on the ground. Both times, the city’s Department of Public Works restored and
returned the three-tiered fountain that stands next to the Canfield Casino.
In a tweet, the Saratoga
Springs History Museum, which is housed in the casino, called the vandalism “mindless nighttime destruction.”
It’s not just the fountain that has gotten hit. In recent years, all of the park’s historic statues have been targets for vandals.
In 2020, the statue honoring the Civil War 77th Infantry Regiment was found in pieces. No surveillance footage was available and the vandals were never caught. The statue was replaced in 2021.
In 2017, one of the identical 1876 urns Day and Night was toppled from its base. In 2016, the statue of Pan, the Greek god of the wild and companion to nymphs, in the park’s Italian Gardens was destroyed. Both were restored and returned to their places in the park.
In addition, the arms of Spit and Spat, the marble fountain sculptures, were knocked off and shattered in 2000. In 2005, the pine branch held in the hand of the Spirit of Life was snapped off. They too were restored.
Since then more video surveillance cameras have been installed, but the late Commissioner of Public Works Anthony “Skip” Scirocco and police have acknowledged that not every inch of the park can be covered.
The Morrissey Fountain was erected in 1870 by John Morrissey who established
the Saratoga Club House, known today as the Canfield Casino. Jamie Parillo, the history museum’s executive director, said a red ball was balanced at the top of the fountain to signal to gamblers that it was time to wager at the club.
“It is one of the original structures in the park,” Parillo said. “I wish the vandalism would stop. I’m really disappointed. I was
doing a guided tour of Congress Park the other day, pointing out the various pieces of the park. I told the group that the fountain was vandalized four or five years ago and said ‘I hope it doesn’t happen again.’ Then, bang. It’s senseless.”