Lion Fountain

Lion Fountain. c. 1910’s. , It is believed the Lion Fountain (c. 1910s) was located at the Pines Hotel that once stood adjacent to the Panama City Depot off Beach Drive where today's Chevron tanks are. Many locals called the fountain a "horse trough" during its time near the industrial train depot and there is still speculation as to whether it was ever used to water horses. The Lion Fountain was moved to the St. Andrews neighborhood of "Old Town" to Alphaeus Patrick Manghum's property on West 10th Street in the 1920s. Manghum, born in 1881 in Alabama, was employed as a wholesale fish dealer and known for having an underground structure behind his house that contained a moonshine still during prohibition., Manghum would change ownership of the 10th street property from person to person in order to avoid the law taking the house because of the moonshine. In 1944, Harbormaster J.N. "Shady" Arnold and his wife Ann purchased the property, and with it the Lion Fountain. The fountain remained in the Arnolds' front yard as a "bird bath" until the St. Andrews Methodist Church purchased the property in the late nineties. In 2009, the Church donated the fountain to the St. Andrews Community and it was moved to its current location in Oaks by the Bay Park. The Historic St. Andrews Waterfront Partnership in cooperation with the City of Panama City and CRA received a grant from the State of Florida Coastal Partnership Initiative to enhance the east entrance of the park; stabilize and preserve the historic Lion Fountain (now seasonal planter); and educate the public about the coastal resources of the St. Andrews area.