Binghamton, NY

Binghamton, NY no longer has a National Humane Alliance Fountain. The city, like many others, abandoned its 1902 fountain many years ago as a watering trough for horses was no longer needed. As you can see in the earlier story below, the city eventually sold the fountain for $5 and it cost the new owner $35 to move it to his property where it sat for decades until things changed in 2018 and 2019.


Jack Walsh (webmaster for this page) is pictured with Benny Oliveri in front of the fountain which he sold to the Rochester Public Market.

As noted below, the property and fountain eventually became the property of Benny Oliveri. He tried to contact civic leaders to see if there was any interest in having the city buy it back for a more suitable public display but got no response.

In the course of his own research, he had contacted us for information on the fountain. Fast forward to 2018 when someone in Rochester contacted us asking if we knew of any towns interested in selling one of the fountains as they wanted to find a replacement for their own fountain in the Rochester Public Market which had been abandoned and lost many years ago.

We connected them with Benny and a deal was struck and Rochester received their new fountain which was moved to the Public Market and formally dedicated on Septermber 28, 2019. You can see more on the Rochester page.

 

Binghamton, NY received one of the first fountains way back in 1902 if the current plaque on the fountain is to be believed. As you can see by clicking on the photo, the original date of 1902 is still there, but the remainder of the original text was removed and replaced. That probably happened because like many other communities, the fountain's location needed to be moved as cars replaced horses and traffic patterns with them. For many communities that was the end of the line for the fountain given to them by the National Humane Alliance and it might have been for this one as well.

Several years ago we were contacted by Benny Oliveri who had come into possession of the fountain and was looking for more information. Years went by before the history of this particular fountain's path to "salvation" emerged. Because the city had no need or place for the fountain, they eventually sold the fountain for the grand sum of $5.00 to a local furniture worker, Otto Banczyk, who then had it moved to his property at a cost of $35 and it disappeared from general public display. It eventually became the property of Mr. Oliveri.

 

For more on the National Humane Alliance Fountains click here.


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