Fountain filmed for posterity

Milt — Milt Salamon

Sculptor who created the famous 67-foot-tall concrete and steel Dragon Point at the southern tip of Merritt Island — the late Lewis Vandercar — is credited for an ocean-fantasy fountain seen for decades off State Road A1A.

Last week we ran a photo of the fountain's remains, two life-size mermaids weighing as much as 800 pounds each. They were sitting in the yard of their new owner, sculptor Ed Volonino, who runs Ed's Heads in Melbourne.

He'd bought them at a yard sale.

"I'm told they were part of a Neptune sculpture, a fountain at the Anchor Inn or Rusty Anchor (now the New England Eatery & Pub) in Melbourne Beach," Ed told us. "When were these built? Does anybody have a photo of the fountain?"

We printed his phone number. Result: the photo at left, taken by Kelly and Dave Kerr of Melbourne. "I got a couple other responses," Ed says. "One guy was a witness to it being built. He believes it was done at the same time as the dragon, in the late '60s. But my research says the dragon was built in '71."

... "I TOOK the photo maybe in summer 1997," said Kelly Kerr. "The fountain looked really neat. There's no other fountain like it that I've seen.

"I never saw it really working, just sitting in the back at the Rusty Anchor for the longest time. I saw it had been moved to the front, and I knew they were remodeling, so I said, 'Oh, oh, something's going to happen to it.' I took the picture."

The central Neptune figure reportedly was bulldozed into oblivion.

"I think water came out of Neptune's mouth," Kelly said. She blames the stains on mineral deposits in well water.

Her 35mm photograph is, by chance, now part of South Brevard history.

... ED CAN EASE off researching the fountain's history. Yet another sculptor, Wayne Coombs, who's had Cocoa Beach's Mai Tiki Gallery for 33 years, bought the mermaids from him.

"Beki and I bought a large wooded area next to our house in Angel City on Merritt Island," Wayne told us. "We're going to use it for a nature trail, and I imagine this statuary there, along with my tiki carvings and assorted sculpture."

When was the fountain sculpted? "I think before the dragon. I'm almost positive it was between '66 and '70. The mermaids are in great condition for their age. And I'm not worried about anybody stealing them because they weigh too much!"

Reach Milt at (321) 242-3666 (Fax 242-6620) or Florida Today, P.O. Box 419000, Melbourne, FL 32941. E-mail: [email protected]