J.M. Studebaker, vice-president of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, likely encountered John L. Mott's elaborate Renaissance-style cast iron fountain at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where Studebaker displayed a new wagon and Mott, president of J.L. Mott Iron Works of New York, exhibited the fountain. Years later, after gaining enough capital, Studebaker ordered an even more elaborate version and had it electrified. Unveiled in Howard Park on July 21, 1906, the grand fountain featured changing lights, classical figures, cherubs riding dolphins, turtles, and a majestic lady at the top, and stood 28 feet tall with a basin 42 feet in diameter. It remained in place for decades until 1941, when it was dismantled and thought to have been melted down for scrap. That year, local residents Mary and John Seiler rescued the top one-third of the fountain along with many of the turtles and dolphins and used them as decoration at their family-run golf course along US 20, later moving the pieces to their private home along the river in Osceola, where it continued to operate as a small fountain. In 2009, surviving Seiler descendants donated the original pieces to The History Museum in South Bend. In 2016, a committee formed to raise money to restore and return the fountain, Robinson Iron Corp. fabricated missing pieces using original molds, McKay Lodge Conservation Lab restored the original pieces and made light bulbs to duplicate the originals, and Georgia Fountain Co. designed the water flow and lighting based on the original design. In 2019, the restored fountain returned to South Bend and was placed in historic Leeper Park.