What happens to old sundials? In Denver, citizens of Cranmer Park are taking matters into their own hands. The City of Denver has generously committed $545,000 to the restoration of the Cranmer sundial and plaza through the Parks and Recreation and the Arts and Venues departments... but the citizens must raise another million dollars.
The history of Cranmer Park and why the current Erickson equatorial dial is there on the terrazzo plaza is fascinating history. The original Erickson dial was installed in 1941. Cranmer wrote in 1950 that "the sundial is only seventeen seconds of time East of the 105th Meridian on which Mountain Time is based, and since the whole setting is so accurate, one can set his watch by it." But in 1965 vandals blew the dial apart with dynamite. The community rallied, and by 1966 the Erickson company made and installed a copy of the original dial, Read the article in Downtown Main Street and visit the North American Sundial Registry Entry NASS #24.
But in 2014 the whole plaza began to sink and a complete overhaul required. The Erickson equatorial disk sundial shows signs of wear and damage.
Donations for the plaza and sundial restoration were made through Save Our Sundial Fund partner, The Park People [of Denver], a 501(c)3 organization.
Save Our Sundial has been instrumental in hosting fund raising events such as the June 8th 2014 benefit concert aptly named “Here Comes the Sundial”. For more information go to http://saveoursundial.com/.
Update:
The City of Denver generously committed $545,000 to the restoration of the Cranmer sundial and plaza through the Parks and Recreation and the Arts and Venues departments with the proviso that citizens raise another million dollars.
A group called "Save Our Sundial" began fundraising and an article of support appeared on this North American Sundial Society website. To date the article has over 3500 views. More important, as of June 2017 the “Save Our Sundial” project, raised $680,000. According to Andrew Kenny of the Denverite, "One major donor, the Harmes C. Fishback Foundation Trust, is led by a descendant of Mayor Benjamin Stapleton, whose administration built much of the park." The City Council has now increased its committment to $870,000.
The Denverite quotes Mark Tabor, assistant director for planning that "The city will have to put the contract before Denver City Council and hopes to start construction this year, with a likely 6 to 8 month construction process." And from Denise Sanderson, a local advocate and organizer for the park restoration, "So, what we’re doing is we’re reconstruction the whole thing – taking it down to the ground, building a foundation and building a drainage system," including repair of the chipped sundial and restoration of the inlaid terrazzo depiction of the Rocky Mountains landscape. See: https://www.denverite.com/looks-like-cranmer-park-sundial-will-saved-33833/
The Denver Patch reports that a total of $2 million is available for the project. Denise Sanderson, "a local advocate and organizer for the park restoration" created the "Save Our Sundial" project which is run by The Park People with Executive Director Kim Yuan-Farrel. City coordinator is Lauri Dannemiller, Executive Director of Parks & Recreation City & County of Denver. The restoration would not be possible without the financial support and community activism of the residence of Hilltop community. Neighbors met Monday, Dec. 18 to celebrate the beginning of the reconstruction at Cranmer Park which will begin in early 2018 and completed by late fall 2018 if seasonal weather permits.
See: https://patch.com/colorado/denver/sundial-repair-denvers-cranmer-park-begin
