"What fun!" "I love it." "It's really wet!"
Those were the children's reviews when The Zebra asked them about the new spray park at 2700 Mount Vernon Avenue in its opening-day story on September 10, 2026. Within weeks, those same kids will find the jets turned off. The City's park page lists fountain hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from the day after Labor Day "through approximately mid-October." The splash pad that Del Ray waited years for got about five weeks of water in its first season.
That short season tells you more about the triangle than the opening-day photos do. In a normal year, the city runs the fountain from Memorial Day weekend through mid-October. The jets are dry for roughly seven months a year. For most of the calendar, the corner where Mount Vernon and Commonwealth Avenues meet is a public art site with benches, a picnic area and a garden. The fountain is the part that runs in summer. The rest was designed to work year-round.
Sixteen Years Between Swims
The Nicholas A. Colasanto Outdoor Pool opened in 1969 and closed in 2010. Two years after it closed, the City's 2012 Aquatic Facilities Study found that a spray park would suit the site best, according to ALXnow's opening coverage. Community engagement and concept work followed in 2021 and 2022. The contract was awarded in October 2024, and crews mobilized on March 31, 2025.
The Del Ray Gateway Project, a community group, applied for Community Matching Fund money for Colasanto Pool Site Improvements in fiscal year 2018. The City's records show a $24,000 City match on a $48,000 total. That earlier effort was canceled, and the funds it raised were moved into the longer-term sprayground conversion. The City still describes the finished work as funded through its Capital Improvement Program plus that Community Matching Fund partnership. Part of what's now at the corner was paid for by neighbors who started raising money nearly a decade before the water came on.
The last stretch ran late. In May 2026 the City said the opening had been "delayed beyond the originally anticipated date." In September it reported that final utility connections had been finished in late August. That's why the first season was so short.
The City Planned for Winter From the Start
The public art page says the Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities department and LSG Landscape Architecture, which ALXnow identifies as McLean-based, are turning the old pool into "a multigenerational, all-season public space." The first goal listed for the commissioned artwork is to "support the site's multi-generational use and all-season access."
Here's what the corner offers in each season, based on the City's park listing:
| Fountain season | Off-season | |
|---|---|---|
| Interactive fountain | 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Memorial Day to Labor Day, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. to about mid-October | Off |
| Park hours | Sunrise to sunset | Sunrise to sunset |
| Public art, benches, picnic area, parking | Available | Available |
The right-hand column covers most of the year. The artwork is what makes that column worth a walk.
Reading the Steles
The work is by French-born artist Béatrice Coron. Her studio lists it as "Tracking Histories: A Splash of Fun." It has three stainless steel steles, each about 2.5 by 10 feet, and two cut-out trains about 72 by 15 inches. The trains are mounted on the fences. On her project page, Coron writes that the trains "invite to discover history of the railways who connected the south to the north and all what they brought to the region." The pieces went in during July 2026, before the water was ever turned on.
The City says the steles are metal structures shaped like buildings, done in an Art Deco style. They're set on concrete pedestals so people can see them while driving by, and each one carries cut-out vignettes meant to be looked at up close. That design reads differently in each season. In summer, kids are running through spray at the base. In winter, with the trees bare and the light low, the cut-outs show against whatever sky sits behind them.
The images come from Del Ray itself. Coron was chosen through a national call for artists in 2022. That same year, she ran a community survey asking Del Ray residents and visitors what they love about the neighborhood, what they miss when they're away, and what inspires them visually.
The City's art concept presentation for the site shows what she planned to draw from. It's a design proposal, so the finished cut-outs may differ in places. The concept included:
- Architecture from Washington School, the Monroe Avenue Swing Building and the 1509 Leslie Avenue Building
- Dog silhouettes on top of two steles, and an eagle with a "Del Ray" inscription on the third
- Medallions on Native American history, nature and ecology, and the Civil War
- The Asaph racetrack, the rail yard and freight trains, and a cable car
- Present-day markets, restaurants and commuting, paired with goods once carried by rail and today's books, music and sport
The rail theme ties all of it together. The concept put the old freight yard on the same steles as today's commute, and the trains on the fences carry that story around the edge of the park. A walk around the triangle on a cold November afternoon is a walk through the neighborhood's own history, told mostly in images that residents helped choose.
The Name on the Sign
Most people say "Colasanto" without knowing who it was. Alexandria Library's archival biography describes Nicholas "Nick" Colasanto as a lawyer and realtor. He was Alexandria City Manager from 1947 to 1949 and served four terms on City Council. The library notes that Colasanto Park was named in his honor. A former city manager's name now sits on the City's newest piece of neighborhood infrastructure, at the north end of Mount Vernon Avenue.
The triangle also holds the Nancy Dunning Memorial Garden. ALXnow describes it as part of the same multi-phase Del Ray Gateway project at Mount Vernon and Commonwealth. The City calls the whole effort a phased redevelopment of the triangle park, and the spray park is the phase that just finished.
Two October Dates Across Commonwealth
The fountain's last weeks overlap with two of the busiest Del Ray events on the field across Commonwealth Avenue, at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center.
- Saturday, October 17: Cinema Del Ray. The Del Ray Business Association lists a free outdoor screening of "Toy Story 5" on the Mount Vernon Recreation Center field. The movie starts at dusk, around 7:30 p.m., and snacks are for sale. The September screening on the same field was "Back To The Future."
- Sunday, October 25: the 30th Annual Del Ray Halloween Parade. The DRBA lists a 2 p.m. start on Mount Vernon Avenue, with music and awards at the end on the Mount Vernon Rec Center field.
Depending on how literally the City reads "mid-October," the fountain may still be running for the movie night. By parade day it will very likely be off. Either way, both crowds end up a crosswalk from the steles. For a lot of families, the first close look at Coron's cut-outs may come in a costume or with popcorn in hand, not in a swimsuit.
If You Still Want the Water
Colasanto is one of two interactive fountains run by the City's Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities department. The other is at Potomac Yard Park, 2501 Potomac Avenue, which ALXnow reports usually runs from Memorial Day weekend through mid-October. The two share the same calendar, so neither one stretches the season. Next Memorial Day weekend, Colasanto gets its first full summer, with hours running to 9 p.m. through Labor Day. Until then, the corner is open sunrise to sunset with the jets off, and the steles show what Del Ray told the artist about itself in 2022.
Christine Garner has spent her career watching corners like Mount Vernon and Commonwealth change, and she's glad to talk about the old Colasanto pool, the new art, or anything else happening on your block. Call Christine, an Old Town neighborhood expert, through Christine Garner.
