He recalls that Quonset huts, which were set up on campus after World War II, had previously dominated the space.

The fountain took over just a few years after the huts were removed, in 1958, becoming a quiet, drizzling observer to the many penny-pitchers, mischievous water-dyers and 1960s protesters, who would use the fountain's stream to clean the tear gas from their eyes.

Now, for Jacobsen, the return of the fountain is a pleasant touch.

"I think it's nice," he said. "It's always refreshing to hear water, see water."

William John Hagenah, the fountain's namesake who received his law degree from UW in 1905, donated $16,500 for its construction. About 25-30 feet in diameter and composed of red granite, the inside wall of the fountain is inscribed with its donor's name, and a message teeming with aquatic metaphor: "Teachers and books are the springs from which flow the waters of knowledge."

Resembling the unremarkable tile of a bathroom stall or gym room shower, the bottom of the fountain is checkered with miniature blue, teal and white ceramic tiles. The water itself emerges from an amphibious bronze structure referred to as a "toadstool," an umbrella-shaped surface draped in sculpted leaves.