Fountain has fame but can’t avoid misfortune

Old Towne Orange — with its neat row of vintage shops and Victorian houses built around a grand town square and landmark fountain — looks so Americana that Hollywood studios have flocked there for generations to use as backdrops for small-town America.

- HANNAH FRY

THE FOUNTAIN in Orange was slightly damaged in a crash Sunday. It had undergone a massive restoration after four crashes in 2023.

It was the stand-in for a Midwestern town in Tom Hanks’ “That Thing You Do” and for a Southern burg in “Big Mama’s House,” among many others.

But increasingly, the peace — and safety of its landmark fountain — has come under threat from a far more modern culprit.

Time and time again, speeding cars have plowed through Plaza Park’s grassy expanses and vibrant rosebushes, demolishing wood benches and slamming into the beloved 88-year-old fountain.

“The whole plaza — people consider that the jewel of Orange,” said Jeff Frankel, a resident of the Old Towne neighborhood in the Orange County city. “Now is it treated that way? Sometimes I don't think so.”

The water feature has suffered its share of abuse over the decades, but the crashes in the last few years have been particularly damaging. They've left officials and residents puzzling over an intractable question: What can be done to stop people from crashing into the fountain?

Early Sunday, the fountain got into its first scrape of the year.

Just after 2:20 a.m., a driver failed to navigate the turn at the roundabout where Glassell Street meets Chapman Avenue and plowed through bushes and barriers surrounding the water feature before scraping the tile on the fountain.

The motorist, who was on probation from a DUI charge, was not injured but was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, Orange Police Lt. Phil McMullin said.

Residents say, if history is any indication, the crash won't be the last. Cars battered the plaza four times in 2023 one of the incidents was DUI related - and once in 2024 after the fountain had undergone a massive restoration project, authorities said. The driver in the 2023 incident suffered moderate injuries.