Drinking fountains in Philadelphia: Difference between revisions

Public drinking fountains have been built and used in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, since the late 19th century. In 1869, Philadelphia began an innovative program of installing public drinking fountains in the city, paid for and maintained by multiple philanthropic organizations. Various reform-minded organizations of Philadelphia supported public drinking fountains as street furniture for different but overlapping reasons. One was the general promotion of public health, in an era of poor water and typhoid fever.^[1] Leaders of the temperance movement such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union saw free, clean water as a crucial alternative to beer. And emerging animal welfare organizations, notably the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, wanted to provide water to the dogs and working horses of the city on humanitarian grounds, which is why Philadelphia's drinking fountains of the era often include curb-level troughs that animals could reach.^[2]

History

Philadelphia built the first citywide gravity-fed water system in the United States, which began operation in January 1801.^[3][4] In 1802, engineer Frederick Graff "designed the first post-type hydrants in the shape of a 'T' with a drinking fountain on one side and a 4-1/2-inch water main on the other" (for firefighting).^[5]

In the Philadelphia system, underwater aqueducts carried drinking water from the Schuylkill River, and twin steam pumps propelled it into a water tower at Centre Square, now the site of Philadelphia City Hall. Scottish-born architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe designed the system along with the Greek Revival pumping house/water tower.^[6] Sculptor William Rush carved a wooden statue, Allegory of the Schuylkill River (better known as Water Nymph with Bittern), to adorn the Centre Square fountain.^[7] Water Nymph and Bittern, built in 1809, was the first fountain in Philadelphia.^[8] The statue was funded by the Philadelphia Watering Committee, formally the Joint Committee on Bringing Water to the City, an organization founded in 1797–98 with the aim of constructing a public water system to combat yellow fever.^[9]

The idea of purpose-built drinking fountains was relatively novel. The first public drinking fountains in England appeared in Liverpool in 1854, through the efforts of Charles Pierre Melly, and that city had 43 in total by 1858.^[10] The first in London was a granite basin attached to the gates of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, funded by Samuel Gurney and his Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association in 1859.^[11]

According to one source, Philadelphia county had its first public drinking fountain in 1854.^[12] It was described in 1884 as:

The first fountain, so called, stands upon the side of the road on the west side of the Wissahickon … It is claimed that this is the first drinking fountain erected in the county of Philadelphia outside of the Fairmount Water-Works. A clear, cold, mountain spring is carried by a spout, covered with a lion's head, from a niche in a granite front, with pilasters and pediment into a marble basin. The construction bears the date 1854 … Upon a slab above the niche are cut the words "Pro bono publico"; beneath the basin these, "Esto perpetua".^[13]

In the 1860s, philanthropic groups and governments across the United States began to fund the building of water fountains, including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1867 (in Union Square in New York City), and the Philadelphia Fountain Society beginning in April 1869.^[14] New fountains in Philadelphia proved immediately successful. They quickly proved their "utility and absolute necessity;" by September 1869 the Fountain Society had constructed 12, and the PASPCA had built another 5.^[15] As of 1880, the Philadelphia Fountain Society recorded 50 fountains serving approximately 3 million people and 1 million horses and other animals.^[2] Reformers continued installing such fountains throughout Philadelphia into the 1940s. Many remain.^[2]

In 2015, Philly Voice reported on plans to re-establish a system of public drinking fountains in the city.^[16]

Sponsors

Philadelphia Fountain Society

The earliest and most prolific fountain-building organization was the Philadelphia Fountain Society, founded and funded by doctor and art collector Wilson Cary Swann (1806–1876)^[a] in February 1869, with the stated mission of developing water fountains and water troughs for Philadelphia.^[19][20][21] "[O]ur object", said the Society, "is the erection and maintenance in this city of public drinking fountains for the health and refreshment of the people of Philadelphia and the benefit of dumb animals".^[8] The fountains were intended to be functional rather than decorative.^[21] The Society hoped that water fountains would promote temperance and improve animal welfare in the city;^[22][23] Swann felt that "the lack of water for workers and animals led to intemperance and crime".^[24] It was formally incorporated on April 21, 1869,^[25] and may have been based upon the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, established in 1859.^[21]

The society reached out to citizens of Philadelphia, asking them to pay $5 for an annual membership of $150 for a lifetime membership.^[21] Its first fountain went up in April 1869,^[21] adjacent to Washington Square, at 7th and Walnut Streets.^[26] An iron eagle perched on top, and below the plaque were two troughs, one for horses, one for dogs.^[27] It was later relocated to Washington Square South.^[2] That same month work began on a second fountain, near Independence Hall. Prominent citizens such as John Wanamaker provided funding to the society, and by July there were five operational fountains.^[21] Two years later, forty three fountains were managed by the society.^[21] Swann handled a large portion of the society's early work, and by 1874 it had erected 73 fountains.^[8][17][19] On April 17 1874, Adelaide Neilson performed a concert to benefit the society at the Academy of Music.^[28]

However, while the Society was rapidly constructing new fountains, it struggled to receive enough money to fund ongoing maintenance of them. In the 1870s, the city budgeted some money for upkeep, but the practice was ended by 1880.^[21] By 1892, number of fountains managed by the society had declined to 60. That year, Swann's wife died and left $80,000 to the society, as well as $25,000 for the construction of a fountain in his memory.^[8][19] By 1910, the number of horses in Philadelphia was decreasing as automobiles and streetcars gained in popularity, decreasing the need for fountains.^[21] It later became the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Circle. After Swann's death and the completion of the Logan Circle fountain in 1924, the society ceased building fountains.^[29] At its peak, the society had managed 82 fountains.^[2] It still exists as a grant-providing organisation.^[21]

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

The Fountain Society was linked to the Pennsylvania branch of the newly formed American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, co-founded in June 1868 by Colonel Mark Richards Muckle of the Public Ledger.^[21] The two had shared motivations, and Swann was involved in both.^[30] As of September 1869, press reports claimed "a very commendable rivalry in the erection of drinking fountains for man and beast will spring up between those two admirable associations", the Fountain Society with twelve in operation so far, and the Philadelphia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) credited with five, all fountains which had "proven their utility and absolute necessity" with more to come.^[15] Some of these featured a curb-level trough for small animals, and a separate drinking fountain for people.^[21]

However, also in 1869, the activist Caroline Earle White had grown frustrated with her exclusion from any decision-making role in the PSPCA, which she had helped to found. She created a Woman's Branch, essentially an auxiliary,^[31] which also independently commissioned the construction of public drinking fountains and horse troughs.^[32][33] (In 1899 White fully broke away from the PSPCA by founding the Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or WPSPCA.)^[19][34]

Temperance organizations

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union also commissioned fountains.

The local membership of the

Also for the 1876 exposition the German-American sculptor Herman Kim produced the elaborate Catholic Total Abstinence Union Fountain. This included five figures, Moses in the middle, and sixteen drinking fountains installed into granite pedestals.^[37]

Notable fountains

Notable outdoor public drinking fountains within the bounds of Philadelphia include:

Name	Date	Image	Location	Designer/Sponsor	Description	Ref(s)
Fountain	1854		Lincoln Drive, Wissahickon Valley, Fairmount Park
Horse Trough	1869		615 S. Washington Square (south side of Washington Square)		The original fountain was taller, and crowned by a bronze eagle. Listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places	[38]
Catholic Total Abstinence Union Fountain	1874–77		Fountain Drive, West Fairmount Park (west of Belmont Avenue)	Herman Kirn, designer & sculptor	Centennial of the United States and built at a cost of $60,000. The granite pedestals of its four subordinate figures each feature four drinking fountains. It still stands close to the Mann Center in Fairmount Park .	[39][40][41]
Temperance Fountain	1876		in storage	Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance	1876 Centennial Exposition. Cost: $2,300. Installed outside Independence Hall , 1877-1969. Placed in storage, 1969	[42]
Class of '92 Drinking Fountain The Scholar and the Football Player: A Drinking Fountain	1900		Quadrangle Dormitories, 37th & Spruce Streets, University of Pennsylvania	Alexander Stirling Calder, sculptor	Located under the North Arcade, between the Memorial Tower and the North Steps	[43]
Mary Rebecca Darby Smith Memorial Fountain	1908		Horticultural Drive, West Fairmount Park	John J. Boyle, sculptor	Relocated from Spring Garden Street in 1934. Originally featured a horse trough
Annie L. Lowry Memorial Fountain	1909		300 Bainbridge Street, median strip west of 3rd & Bainbridge Streets		Erected by the Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at a cost of $1,500, with money left in Lowry's will. It was dedicated on May 12, 1909 Listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places	[44][38]
Horse Trough			147 N 2nd Street		Listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places	[38]
Horse Trough at 315 S 9th St	circa 1910		315 S. 9th Street		Listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places	[38][45]
Horse Trough			312 Arch Street		Listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places	[38]
J. William White Memorial Drinking Fountain	1921		Rittenhouse Square (Walnut Street, between 18th & 19th Streets)	Paul Philippe Cret, architect R. Tait McKenzie, sculptor	Commissioned by the Rittenhouse Square Flower Market Association, in honor of J. William White.	[46]

See also

• Drinking fountains in the United States
• Temperance fountain
• National Humane Alliance fountains
• Benson Bubbler

Notes

References

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fountains in Philadelphia.

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• Finkel, Kenneth; Oyama, Susan (1988). Philadelphia Then and Now: 60 Sites Photographed in the Past and Present. New York:
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• Philadelphia and Its Environs: Illustrated. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1876. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• "The Evolution of the Horse Drinking Fountain". The National Humane Review. American Humane Association: 150–151. 1913.
• Scharf, John Thomas; Westcott, Thompson (1884). History of Philadelphia, 1609–1884. L. H. Everts & Company.
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