Frances Hodgson Burnett Memorial Fountain
New York, New York County, New York
Marker Inscription
FOUNTAIN GROUP GIVEN TO THE CHILDREN OF THE CITY IN THE NAME OF FRANCES HODGSON BURNET 1849-1924
The Story
In the Conservatory Garden at the north end of Central Park stands a quiet bronze fountain honoring Frances Hodgson Burnett, the English-born American author whose children's books—most enduringly The Secret Garden—shaped generations of young readers. The fountain's two children, a boy playing a flute and a girl holding a bowl, echo Mary and Dickon from that beloved 1911 novel, set in a walled garden much like the one that surrounds them here. Dedicated in the 1930s after Burnett's death, the memorial was a gift meant for the children of the city, tying the author's imaginative world to a real public garden they could wander.
Why it matters
It marks how deeply a storyteller can enter a nation's shared childhood, honoring one of the most widely read women authors of the turn-of-the-century era with a monument built expressly for the young. The fountain stands as a rare civic tribute to literature and to a woman's creative legacy in the American cultural landscape.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in 1849, the world of childhood was being reinvented. The century that surrounded her life ran from the smokestacks of industrial England to the boulevards of Gilded Age America, and in between a new idea took hold: that children deserved books written for delight rather than mere instruction. Burnett rode that wave and helped push it forward.
New York, where this fountain sits, was the beating heart of that transformation. By the turn of the twentieth century the city was a capital of publishing, theater, and wealth, its new fortunes raising libraries, museums, and parks. Central Park itself was the era's great democratic experiment — a landscape shaped for everyone, rich and poor, immigrant and native-born.
It was also an age of arrival. Millions crossed the Atlantic in these decades to build American lives, and Burnett was one of them, though she came earlier and under quieter circumstances. Her story folds neatly into the larger story of a nation constantly remade by the people who chose it.
People & events
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester, England, in 1849. Her comfortable childhood collapsed when her father died, and as a teenager she crossed the ocean with her family to start over in America. She began writing to help make ends meet — and discovered she was very good at it.
Over a long career she gave young readers some of their most beloved companions, from a golden-haired boy who melts a stern grandfather's heart to a resourceful girl who refuses to stop being a princess even in poverty. Her most enduring gift came in 1911, with a tale of a neglected, sour-tempered girl who finds a locked and forgotten garden — and, in bringing it back to life, brings herself to life too.
Burnett died in 1924. A little more than a decade later, admirers set this bronze memorial in a walled garden at the north end of Central Park. Its two figures — a boy lifting a flute to his lips and a girl holding a shallow bowl — are widely understood to echo the two children at the heart of that famous secret garden, quietly returning her characters to a real garden the public could wander.
Its place in the American story
It is a rare thing for a country to build a monument to a storyteller, rarer still to build one meant for children. This fountain does both. It marks the moment a single author entered the shared imagination of a nation — the books passed hand to hand, read aloud at bedtime, remembered decades later.
Burnett's life also traces one of the oldest American patterns. She arrived from abroad with little and remade herself through work and talent, becoming one of the most widely read women writers of her time. The memorial honors both an immigrant's climb and a woman's creative legacy, two threads not always celebrated in bronze.
And there is something fitting in giving that tribute to the young. A gift "to the children of the city" ties a private imaginative world to a public, democratic one — the same spirit that built the park around it, a place meant to belong to everyone.
If you visit
Look for the fountain in the quiet, formal garden at the north end of Central Park — a walled retreat that feels a world away from the busy paths farther south. It is the calmest corner of the park, and that is the point.
Find the two children in bronze: the boy with his flute, the girl with her bowl, set among plantings that shift with the seasons. If you have read the novel they call to mind, you may feel the garden around you doing exactly what the story promised — turning a hidden, tended place into something that quietly lifts the spirit.
It makes a lovely, low-key stop on a New York walking day, especially paired with a stroll through the surrounding beds. Come in spring or early summer and the garden is at its fullest; come in any season and it rewards a slow, unhurried visit. Bring children if you can — the memorial was made with them in mind.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- 81 Leonard Gallery5.9 mi away
- Gerben Fine Art6.0 mi away
- Bureau6.1 mi away · 112 Duane Street
- Hall des Lumières6.1 mi away · 49 Chambers Street, New York, NY
- Cloud Gallery6.2 mi away
- MĒRCER LABS6.4 mi away · 21 Dey Street
Attractions
- The River Project Wetlab5.5 mi away
- FDNY Ladder 85.8 mi away · 14 North Moore Street, New York
- Cortlandt Alley5.8 mi away
- Dream house5.8 mi away
- Chinatown5.9 mi away
- Textile building5.9 mi away
Food & drink
- Maman6.9 mi away
- Sweetgreen6.9 mi away
- Semicolon Cafe6.9 mi away
- Greene Hook Bar & Kitchen6.9 mi away
- Rumi Turkish Grill7.0 mi away
- Bluestone Lane7.0 mi away
Places to stay
- Conrad6.3 mi away · 102 North End Avenue, New York
- M Social Hotel New York Downtown6.4 mi away · 55 Church Street, New York, NY
- Residence Inn New York Downtown Manhattan/World Trade Center Area6.5 mi away · 170 Broadway, New York, NY
- DoubleTree6.5 mi away · 455 Washington Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ
- Holiday Inn6.5 mi away · 51 Nassau Street
- Sonesta Simply Suites Jersey City6.6 mi away · 21 2nd Street, Jersey City, NJ
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Related people
- · Frances Hodgson Burnett
Themes & tags
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