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Stearns Square is located in downtown Springfield close to the center of the business district. In 1881 Congressman Chester William Chapin commissioned the sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens and the architect Sanford White to create a statue and a fountain for the park. It was unveiled in 1887. Ted was fascinated by the turtles around the fountain. They might have influenced the turtles in his book Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories.