Drive around Kansas City for a day and you’re bound to pass something that begs for an explanation. Maybe it’s an unorthodox fountain, a streetside castle, or the nose of a Concorde jet in someone’s yard.
Boy and Frog Fountain
We’ll start with the fountain—a sight that’s caused many a tilted head on the corner of Nichols and Central in the Country Club Plaza. It’s a small bronze statue consisting of a basin, a frog, and a nude boy with what appears to be impeccable aim. Its name: Boy and Frog. Got it.
The boy isn’t doing what it looks like. Check the flow. The frog is spitting water at the boy. The fountain was created by Italian sculptor Raffaello Romanelli and moved to the Plaza in the late 1920s.
If you’re on a fountain hunt, consider checking out another one of Romanelli’s fountains: the Romanelli Island Fountain located at the junction of West 69th, Edgevale, and Wornall.
Workhouse Castle
You’ll see a lot of cool things in historic 18th & Vine, but nothing as baffling as the graffiti- and vine-laden castle at 2001 Vine Street…