Built in honor of Baron Walter Von Richthofen as a watering fountain, not a decorative fountain but to actually provide drinking water for horses and people. The large opening on the street side of it held water for animals and on the other side, there was a drinking fountain for people.
The monument is situated in a small park at the corner of Oneida Street and Richthofen Parkway and embellished so as to provide a distinctive entryway to the Montclair neighborhood. The designer of the circa 1900 park is not known; however, Harlan Thomas designed the monument itself.
After the widowed Baroness Louise von Richthofen died in Denver in 1934, her ashes are interred beside the Richthofen monument. But, as the monument reminds us, The Soul Has Migrated.
"Baron Walter von Richthofen, an uncle of Manfred von Richthofen, emigrated from Silesia to the United States in 1877. He founded the Denver Chamber of Commerce, and was co-founder of Montclair, Denver at that time a village east of Denver but now incorporated into the city. His Richthofen Castle was one of the most sumptuous mansions in the American West. Begun in 1883 and completed in 1887, it was modeled on the original Richthofen Castle in Germany. Located immediately around the Castle are the Baron's mistress's house and his sanitarium/dairy."
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