The Adagio Fountain, featuring a statue of two mermaids in an adagio pose atop a 25-foot pillar, has greeted visitors to Florida’s Weeki Wachee Springs State Park since it was unveiled in 1966. Made of vintage masonry, the 56-year-old sculpture was experiencing cracks, spalling, deterioration and other damage when the Florida Department of Environmental Protection reached out to Western Specialty Contractors to resolve the issues.
The fountain’s mermaids were created by retired Weeki Wachee “mermaid” Diane Whatt McDonald, 91. McDonald and other women performed as magical mermaids for audiences in the spring’s underwater theater – a roadside attraction that started in 1947 and continues today. The park’s spring is one of the deepest natural caverns in the U.S. with approx. 117 million gallons of clear water flowing from it daily.
The scope of work also included restoration of the statue’s interior steel frame. Workers removed rust from all deteriorated steel, then installed a corrosion inhibitor and a thin set of a cementitious epoxy adhesive to align the steel with the curves and details of the mermaids’ bodies.
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