Stanford Fountain at Gordon Reserve, opposite the Treasury building, Spring Street, C.1949
The fountain was the work of a man called [William] Stanford. who was apprenticed in England to a stonemason, but ran away to sea, and in 1852 arrived in Australia ...
He was brought before the Court for creating a disturbance, and convicted to three months' imprisonment.
One year later he was sentenced to ten years' for horse-stealing. After four years he was released, but soon for highway robbery he was convicted to a sentence which totalled 22 years.
While in Pentridge his artistic talent was noticed. Basalt was the only stone available at Pentridge, so the fountain was made in this. The small boy was modelled from the son of the governor of Pentridge.
The fountain was first erected at Pentridge, but it was urged on the grounds of its artistic merit that it should be allotted some public site, so in 1870 it was moved to Spring Street.
Stanford was released from Pentridge long before his full sentence was served, and set up in St Kilda as a monumental mason.