The fountain is composed of a number of tiered bowls with a marble statue of the Marquis de LaFayette on top.

He holds a sword next to his heart in his right hand and has a cape draped over his left arm.

Taft wrote about this early commission (perhaps his first) of his that: "The LaFayette" was about the first order I had in Chicago as I arrived there with high hopes – and little else – the first day of 1886.

It was a copy of Bartholdi's "LaFayette" in New York City that was required of me and one tiny photograph of that figure was all that was given to me for data.

I wonder at the temerity of youth, but I had to have the money and that supplies unlimited courage.