Burnett Memorial Fountain

The Burnett Memorial Fountain honors the legacy of children's author Frances Hodgson Burnett, the writer who gave the world The Secret Garden. Rather than creating a traditional statue of the author herself, her friends commissioned sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnoh to capture the spirit of her work through its most beloved characters. The bronze figures of a young girl holding a birdbath and a reclining boy playing a flute represent Mary Lennox and Dickon Sowerby, the central figures from Burnett's classic story. These two children embody the sense of discovery and connection to nature that defines the author's most famous literary retreat.