Buckingham Fountain was donated to the City of Chicago by Kate Buckingham in honor of her brother. She left $1,000,000 ($14,000,000 in today’s dollars) for construction and maintenance. It is still one of the largest fountains in the world with 15,000 gallons per minute flowing to a height of 50 feet. The fountain contains 1,500,000 gallons of water.It opened in 1927 with 50,000 people in attendance to hear John Phillip Sousa play Stars and Stripes Forever.The first photo shows it under construction in 1925 and the third about one year later.
