The fountain, completed in 1912,[1] emplaced in 1913[2] and dedicated after October 1919,[1] consists of a sculptural group of the Three Graces placed upon a pink granite base.

The use of The Three Graces are meant to provide the viewer of the fountain with a feeling of honor, allegorical generosity, grave, serenity and virtue – metaphorical reflections of McMillan's contributions and "civil morality.

The building process never proceeded and sometime between 1957 and 1974 the fountain's approximately 80 pieces were moved to an off-site park service storage facility in Fort Washington, Maryland.

Rick Sowell, a D.C. Recreation Department leader, led teenagers working in the city's summer jobs programs to uncover the fountain's 77 pieces, then covered in mud and blackberry brambles in Fort Washington.

Sowell received authorization to take the nymphs, basin, pedestal and two benches for exhibit in Bloomingdale's Crispus Attucks Park, which he had turned into a makeshift museum.

[2][3] In July 1983 the Hyman Construction Company moved five major pieces of the fountain to the museum in Crispus Attucks Park, mere blocks from where it originally stood.

At the unveiling, Bloomingdale local Robert Brannum described the return of the fountain as "having a cherished family heirloom back on the mantle."

"[2][3] Due to funding problems and a major fire at the museum, park expansion and the fountain's full restoration were cut short by 1991.