Loose Park Wall Fountains (Adam and Eve)

Commonly known as “Adam and Eve,” the Loose Park Wall Fountains were dedicated in 1942 during the annual Rose Day celebration. After winning a competition held by the New Deal program Works Progress Administration, sculptor Jeanette Klein created two, large clay figures of a man and woman which were inset into the back wall of a service building near the Loose Park Rose Garden. The figures were replaced a few years later with concrete and marble aggregate sculptures using the original forms.

The Loose Park Wall Fountains were created as a product of a competition sponsored by the Works Progress Administration in 1941. Established in 1935, the WPA was the largest program developed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The program was designed as a social welfare and work program to mitigate the rising unemployment numbers caused by the Great Depression by safeguarding Americans’ skills and stimulating the economy. After the start of World War II, unemployment became virtually nonexistent and the WPA was terminated in 1943. In its eight years of operation, the program employed 8.5 million Americans. 

One of the five WPA program projects called the Federal Arts Project employed artists, writers, and actors which helped museums flourish, improved cultural programs, and created artwork for public spaces. In 1941 a competition was held to design a fountain for Loose Park and Jeanette Klein was awarded the commission. She sculpted larger-than-life clay figures of a man and woman kneeling, which were inset into a semi-circular alcove in the back wall of a service building near the Garden Center. Each figure holds a bowl as water trickles down to a small basin. The fountains were dedicated in Spring of 1942 during the Kansas City Rose Society’s annual Rose Day celebration at the Laura Conyers Smith Municipal Rose Garden. To improve durability, the clay sculptures were replaced with concrete and marble aggregate figures of the same form in 1946. It is unclear if Klein named the work of art, but the figures have become known as “Adam and Eve” or “Lady and Gent.” 

Artist Jeanette Klein (1896 – 1980) was a Polish immigrant and moved to Kansas City in the early 1900s. Before teaching years later, Klein studied at the Kansas City Art Institute under William Wallace Rosenbauer, sculptor and exhibitionist who donated the Rose Garden’s lily pool’s sculpture in 1939. Klein worked with a variety of mediums but is most known for sculpting and has been featured in Life Magazine. 

Loose Park Wall Fountains (Adam and Eve), KC Parks. Accessed July 11th 2022. https://kcparks.org/places/adam-and-eve-fountains-2/.

Works Progress Administration, Living New Deal. November 18th 2016. Accessed July 11th 2022. https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/works-progress-administration-wpa-1935/.