Red, white and blue downtown: Mansfield celebrates America’s 250th on the square

MANSFIELD — Marcia Rice felt a few tears spring to her eyes as she watched the American flag rise above Central Park on Saturday morning.

“I think for myself it’s a privilege that I have an opportunity to see and witness (America’s 250th),” she said. “I don’t know if enough people feel that way.”

Mansfield residents and out-of-town visitors alike gathered downtown to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial.

Festivities included a flag raising, the opening of the 1976 time capsule and a rededication of the Vasbinder Fountain.

Richland Public Health gave out free, red white and blue popsicles and ice cream sandwiches while Jazz Connection played in the Central Park Gazebo, paying homage to one of America’s most iconic genres music. 

Richland County Juvenile Court Judge Steve McKinley gave a brief address on the enduring legacy of the Declaration of Independence. 

“When you look up to the sky tonight and you see and hear the fireworks, I want you to remember and think about that we’re endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights and that those rights are worth celebrating and defending,” he said.

McKinley reminded listeners that none of the most iconic phrases uttered in American history – from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech – would exist without the Declaration of Independence.. 

“The words of the Declaration are the greatest, not only because they are true, but also because they inspired action,” he said.

“The Declaration of Independence was a declaration of war, and they fought that war for seven years. We have become the greatest nation on the face of the earth because they won that war and because the principles that they fought for, we have attempted, although imperfectly, to live out.”

(Below are photos from the 4th of July celebration in Mansfield’s Central Park on Saturday. The story continues below the photos.)

Vasbinder Fountain returns as backdrop for civic celebration

The Vasbinder Fountain was technically reinstalled in Central Park last month, but received an official welcome home on Saturday.

The fountain, recently restored thanks to a financial gift from the Richland County Foundation, was donated by David and Jane Vasbinder in 1881.

The mammoth, cast-iron fountain was disassembled last fall and shipped to Robinson Iron, a foundry in Alabama that fully restored the iconic structure to its original glory.

City deputy engineer Blair McClenathan’s research on the fountain led to a $250,000 grant from the Richland County Foundation to pay for the restoration.

“The company that originally cast it was J.L. Mott out of New York. When it went defunct, Robinson Iron actually bought the original castings. So they’ve got the molds, they can recast, they could rebuild the whole fountain if they wanted to,” McClenathan said.

The restoration effort included recasting parts as needed and sandblasting layers of paint that have been applied over the years. The original price tag for the fountain was around $2,500.

It also included cleaning and conserving sections of cast iron, repairing corrosion, applying fresh paint and protective coating and updating the mechanical and plumbing systems.

When the fountain was taken away for repairs last year, it wasn’t the first time it had left the park. In fact, the fountain was gone for two decades at one point.

The city “sold it for scrap” in 1958 to James Pugh, who owned land that is now part of Malabar Farm State Park near Lucas, including the famous “Pugh Cabin.”

The city made the decision to get rid of the fountain when it paved the road through Central Park, breaking it into two halves, south and north of Park Avenue.

Pugh, fortunately, never scrapped it, Andres said in 2024.

“James Pugh today would be considered a hoarder. He never threw anything away,” said Andres, who had been the manager at Malabar Farm for 22 years

Instead, Pugh gave it to his friend, Louis Bromfield, who placed the fountain in a lower terrace garden near the pond before donating it back to the city when it requested it in 1979.

The city, led by then-Councilman Dan Stevens, had the fountain restored and placed back in the park. It was re-dedicated on July 4, 1979.