Mary Hale Lovett Memorial Garden
The bronze sculpture in the fountain at the center of this garden is entitled "The Sisters," by artist Carl Milles. It was erected to reflect the friendship between the two "sister" colleges, Brown and Jones, which were the first two residences for women constructed on the Rice campus. The garden is named for Mary Ellen (Hale) Lovett, wife of Rice's founding president, Edgar Odell Lovett. The garden and sculpture were originally located elsewhere and known to generations of Rice alumni as "the fairy fountain," but both were relocated to this new plaza when the former Jones Commons was demolished and rebuilt as part of the expansion of the university's northern colleges.