Loose Park Wall Fountains “Adam and Eve”

In 1941, the Works Progress Administration sponsored a competition to select an artist for a fountain in Jacob Loose Park. Jeanette Klein of Kansas City was awarded the commission and she created larger-than-life-size figures of a man and a woman in clay, which were placed in semicircular niches on the south wall of a service building. They were unveiled during the 1942 Rose Day celebration. In 1946, the clay figures were replaced with stronger versions of the same forms made of cast concrete with marble aggregate. The kneeling figures each hold bowls from which water trickles into small basins at the base of the niches.

Over the years, the sculptures have acquired nicknames, such as “Adam and Eve” and “Lady and Gent,” but there is nothing to indicate that the artist ever gave the work a specific name.