Drinking fountains in Philadelphia

Public drinking fountains in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, have been built and used since the 19th century. Various reform-minded organizations in the city 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. Leaders of the temperance movement such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union saw free, clean water as a crucial alternative to beer. 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.

History

Background

Philadelphia suffered multiple yellow fever epidemics in the 1790s. The Philadelphia Watering Committee, formally the Joint Committee on Bringing Water to the City, was founded in 1797–98 with the mission of constructing a public water system to combat the disease. Scottish-born architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, famous for being the architect of the United States Capitol building, designed the Philadelphia system in which an underground brick aqueduct carried drinking water from the Schuylkill River to Centre Square, now the site of Philadelphia City Hall. There, twin steam pumps propelled the water into a tank in the tower of the pumping house, from which gravity distributed it throughout the city via wooden water mains. Completed in January 1801, this was the first citywide gravity-fed public water system in the United States.
Latrobe's chief draftsman, Frederick Graff, designed a T-shaped wooden fire hydrant in 1802, that featured "a drinking fountain on one side and a 4-1/2-inch water main on the other." The hydrants were installed along every major street of the city.
Latrobe's Greek Revival pumping house and the gardens surrounding it became a major attraction. Graff was promoted to manager of the Water Works in 1805, and designed the fountain for Centre Square. The Watering Committee commissioned sculptor William Rush to create a statue, Allegory of the Schuylkill River, to be its centerpiece. Better known as Water Nymph with Bittern, it was carved from pine and painted white. The first public fountain in Philadelphia was unveiled in August 1809.

Drinking fountains

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. 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.
A spring-fed public drinking fountain was erected in 1854, along the Wissahickon Creek opposite Chestnut Hill. 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".

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, and the Philadelphia Fountain Society beginning in April 1869. 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 Pennsylvania branch of the ASPCA had built another 5. As of 1880, the Philadelphia Fountain Society recorded 50 fountains serving approximately 3 million people and 1 million horses and other animals. Reformers continued installing such fountains throughout Philadelphia into the 1940s. Many remain.
In 2015, Philly Voice reported on plans to re-establish a system of public drinking fountains in the city.

Sponsors

Philadelphia Fountain Society

The earliest and most prolific fountain-building organization was the Philadelphia Fountain Society, headed by medical doctor and art collector Wilson Cary Swann and formally incorporated on April 21, 1869, with the stated mission of developing water fountains and water troughs for Philadelphia. "ur object", wrote Swann, "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".
The society hoped that water fountains would directly improve quality-of-life for workers and working animals in the city, and indirectly promote temperance; Swann felt that "the lack of water for workers and animals led to intemperance and crime", and that drinking fountains positioned around the city would help "workers quench their thirst in public instead of entering local taverns". Some of Swann's arguments may have been derived from the like-minded London Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, established in 1859.
The fountains themselves were intended to be more functional than decorative, although many of them incorporate work by significant architects and sculptors. The society reached out to Philadelphians, advertising $5 for an annual membership, or $150 for a lifetime membership.
The society's first fountain went up in April 1869, adjacent to Washington Square, at 7th and Walnut Streets. A cast iron eagle perched on top, and below the plaque were two troughs, one for horses, one for dogs. That same year, work began on two fountains for the 500 block of Chestnut Street, in front of Independence Hall. Prominent citizens such as John Wanamaker and Anthony Joseph Drexel provided funding to the society, and by July there were five operational fountains. Two years later, forty three fountains were managed by the society. The society installed three fountains on Rittenhouse Square, the first outside the iron fence at the square's northwest corner; the others within the iron fence at its northeast and southeast corners. Persistent flooding around the fountains created a nuisance, and the society removed them by 1884.
Swann handled a large portion of the society's work, and by 1874 it had erected 73 fountains. On April 17, 1874, Adelaide Neilson performed a concert to benefit the society at the Academy of Music.
The society had challenges. While rapidly constructing new fountains, it struggled to fund ongoing maintenance. In the 1870s, the city budgeted some money for upkeep, but that practice was ended by 1880. The city was hard on its drinking fountains. That first fountain at 7th and Walnut, which was "at all times surrounded by a thirsty crowd" as of 1896, had its iron eagle "blown over" to land on a boy and break his arm, resulting in civil damages, then its fortified replacement eagle was squarely broken off by a tree branch.

The destruction of fountains by boys and men with vandalistic tendencies, has to be constantly watched for and guarded against. Truck drivers and dragmen with heavy wagons also, by their carelessness, damage the fountains, and it is no uncommon thing for a fountain to be entirely knocked over by the pole of a brewery wagon... the majority of the fountains... erected now-a-days, are built low down, below the range of a wagon pole.

Swann died in 1876. By 1892, the 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. By 1910, the number of horses in Philadelphia was decreasing as automobiles and streetcars gained in popularity, decreasing the need for fountains. After the completion of its last grand project, the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Circle in 1924, the society ceased building fountains. At its peak, the society had managed 82 fountains. It still exists as a grant-providing organisation.

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. The two had shared motivations, and Swann was involved in both. 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 Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals credited with five, all fountains which had "proven their utility and absolute necessity" with more to come. Some of these featured a curb-level trough for small animals, and a separate drinking fountain for people.
By 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 Women's Branch, essentially an auxiliary, which also independently commissioned the construction of public drinking fountains and horse troughs. White founded the American Anti-Vivisection Society in Philadelphia in 1883. She created its monthly magazine, Journal of Zoöphily, in 1892, and worked as editor for 25 years.

Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

White fully broke away from the PSPCA in 1899, founding the independent Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or WPSPCA. The WPSPCA became co-publisher of Journal of Zoöphily, which promoted its good works. White was assisted by the efforts and financial support of the WPSPCA's vice-president, Annie L. Lowry, the childless widow of a successful Philadelphia lawyer. Lowry sponsored horse fountains at Walnut & Dock Streets and 8th & Porter Streets, and more were erected in her memory. Lowry made $58,000 in bequests to the WPSPCA in her 1908 will, including $10,000 "for erecting fountains in Philadelphia for horses and smaller animals," and $20,000 to establish the first animal shelter in the United States.

A crusade is being conducted in Philadelphia, and has been for six years past, by the members of the Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In 1906, Mrs. Bradbury Bedell, a member of the Women's Society who had long been active in seeking better conditions for animals in Philadelphia, and the late Mrs. A. L. Lowry, another woman who for years had sought successfully to aid in the comfort of the dumb beasts, debated over the filthiness of many of the water troughs located around the city. They made personal appeals in many cases to saloon keepers where they found trough conditions especially flagrant. Sometimes their efforts were successful, and again the women's appeals were passed by unnoticed.

Then the thought came to them that the society could in time establish sufficient stations to crush out the horse trough evil, and the campaign was started. In six years the results have been even more than the originators had anticipated. To-day the society owns forty fountains and troughs throughout the city. Conditions at many other fountains have been greatly improved, and horse owners have been aroused to the danger.

The city authorities have cheerfully aided the Women's Society here by furnishing the supply of water free for all the stations and in other ways. Many heads of stores and establishments which have a large supply of horses have also responded to the society's efforts on behalf of the horse. They know what it means from a commercial as well as a humane standpoint.

As of 1928 the WPSPCA still ran a veterinary hospital in the city, an animal refuge, owned and maintained 50 street fountains open all year, and put up additional seasonal horse-watering stations in the city from May through November.

Temperance organizations

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union also commissioned fountains.
The local membership of the Sons of Temperance funded a drinking fountain, originally installed under a pergola at the 1876 Centennial Exposition and later moved to Independence Square in 1877. As advertised, it provided ICE WATER FREE TO ALL.
Also for the 1876 exposition the German-American sculptor Herman Kirn produced the elaborate Catholic Total Abstinence Union Fountain. This included five figures, Moses in the middle, and sixteen drinking fountains installed into granite pedestals.

Notable drinking fountains

Some entries in this table overlap the entries in Drinking fountains in the United States. Neither table is an exhaustive list.

Name	Date	Image	Location	Sponsor/Designer	Material	Notes
"First Fountain"	1854		Forbidden Drive, Wissahickon Valley	John Cook and Charles Magargé	white marble	Interpretive panel beside the "First Fountain": "Half a mile above Valley Green is a marble drinking fountain, erected in 1854—the first built in Philadelphia. It is supplied from a mountain spring, and the water is clear and cold. … John Cook and Charles Magargé presented this fountain to the Park Commission for public use." Sealed in 1957 because of water pollution
Peace Fountain	1865		Fairmount Water Works, South Garden		brownstone	Peace Fountain, 1870: A wall fountain set against a granite cliff. The inscription, "Peace June 1865," refers to the month in which the last fighting of the Civil War ended.
Washington Square Fountain	1869		Original: 7th & Walnut Streets Current: 615 S. Washington Square	Philadelphia Fountain Society	granite	Installed along the square's north side, 1869: "Outside the railing of this square, on a line with Seventh Street is a stone fountain surmounted by an eagle standing on a globe, which is noteworthy as being the first of these benevolent structures in providing which the Philadelphia Fountain Society has already earned the gratitude of thousands of thirsty men and suffering beasts." Relocated to the square's south side, 1916 Listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Tyler Memorial Fountain Horse Trough at 312 Arch Street	1869		Original: 500 block of Chestnut Street Current: 312 Arch Street	Philadelphia Fountain Society	granite	Two PFS fountains were installed on Chestnut Street in front of Independence Hall, 1869. One was sponsored by Mrs. F. Tyler, the other by merchant John Wanamaker. "The State-House pumps were very near, if not exactly, upon the spot where fountains, surmounted by vases and intended to be decorated by flowers or shrubbery, were afterward placed by the Philadelphia Fountain Society." The Wanamaker fountain was hit by a car in the 1940s, and removed. The Tyler fountain was relocated to 312 Arch Street, 1942 Listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Lemon Hill Spring	circa 1870		Kelly Drive & Sedgeley Drive, East Fairmount Park		white marble	In the background of the Lincoln Monument : In 2020:
In Aqua Sanitas Fountain	1870–1871		Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, West Fairmount Park		granite	Inscription: "In Aqua Sanitas" "Drinking fountain and water trough, west side of West River drive, just south of Falls Bridge."
Horse trough	1870–1871		Martin Luther King Jr. Drive & Montgomery Drive, West Fairmount Park		granite	"Drinking fountain and water trough, west side of West River drive, just south of Columbia Bridge." No inscription; drinking fountain removed
Catholic Total Abstinence Union Fountain	1874–1877		Fountain Drive, West Fairmount Park	Catholic Total Abstinence Union Herman Kirn, designer and sculptor	granite	Erected on the fairgrounds of the 1876 Centennial Exposition, and dedicated July 4, 1876. Cost: $60,000 16 drinking fountains—located on the four granite pedestals of the subordinate statues. Water was supplied from a reservoir atop Georges Hill. Georges Hill Reservoir is now the site of the Mann Music Center.
Temperance Fountain	1876		Original: 1876 Centennial Exposition fairgrounds Current: in storage	Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance	cast iron	Installed under a 13-sided gazebo at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Cost: $2,300. "At the close of the Centennial, the Sons of Temperance removed the fountain to Independence Square, where they supply it with ice at their own cost from June to October every year." Installed outside Independence Hall, 1877–1969. Placed in storage, 1969
Lion's Head Fountain	1878		Original: Lincoln Drive, Wissahickon Valley Current: Kelly Drive, East Fairmount Park	Fairmount Park Art Association Mrs. Richard Davis Wood, donor	granite	In its original location, 1895. Note the metal cup chained to the fountain: Relocated to Kelly Drive, year
Ancient Roman Sarcophagus Kates Horse Trough	200–225 A.D. 1879		Forbidden Drive	Fairmount Park Art Association Clarence S. Kates, donor	Italian white marble	Detail: Woman Riding a Sea-Centaur: A highly-carved ancient Roman sarcophagus, repurposed as a horse trough, and installed at MacFarland Spring, 1879. Destroyed by vandalism. Original dimensions: H. x W. x D. Dr. Donald White, of the University of Pennsylvania, dates it to "the first quarter of the 3rd century AD." "HORSE TROUGH. Presented by Clarence S. Kates. Accepted by the Commissioners of Fairmount Park, December 15th, 1878, and placed on the Wissahickon Drive, near the site of the Old Log Cabin."
Orestes and Pylades Fountain	1884		33rd Street & Reservoir Drive, East Fairmount Park	Fairmount Park Art Association Carl Johann Steinhäuser, sculptor Herman Kirn, designer	bronze & granite	Steinhäuser's 1871 marble sculpture is located in the Palace Park, Karlsruhe, Germany. Kirn owned his late teacher's plaster model, from which this was cast in bronze. "Cast by Bureau Brothers, Philadelphia. Mounted on a pedestal of Richmond granite, with streams of water pouring from four bronze masks. Placed near Columbia Avenue Entrance to the East Park, south of the great Receiving Reservoir, in September, 1884."
Catharine Thorn Memorial Fountain	1890		23rd Street, South Street & Grays Ferry Avenue	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals	granite	Inscription: "The Legacy of Catharine Thorn by the W. P. S. P. C. A." Funded with $1000 Thorn left to the Society in her will. Installed at the center of a paved plaza bounded by South Street, 23rd Street and Grays Ferry Avenue. Now the center of a triangular pocket park
Forepaugh Horse Trough	1895		Fairhill Square, 4th Street & Lehigh Avenue	Philadelphia Fountain Society M. H. Gregg, maker	granite	Inscription: "Presented to the Philadelphia Fountain Society by a Lady" Maker's mark:
William Leonidas Springs Fountain	1899		Lincoln Drive, Wissahickon Valley	Jeanette S. Springs, donor	granite	"In October, 1899, a granite fountain was erected on the Wissahickon Drive at the Old Log Cabin spring by Miss Jeanette S. Springs, in memory of her father, William Leonidas Springs." An exedra, with a pedimented wall fountain and horse trough at center and a drinking fountain at each end. Sealed in the 1940s because of water pollution
Class of 1892 Drinking Fountain The Scholar and the Football Player	1900		Quadrangle Dormitories University of Pennsylvania 37th & Spruce Streets	University of Pennsylvania Class of 1892, sponsor Alexander Stirling Calder, designer and sculptor	bronze & granite	Bronze; result of a $2500 fund raised by alumni; "the student appears in cap and gown, while, seated at his side, is the athlete, in football armor and with a 'pigskin' held firmly in his arm." Located under the North Arcade, between the Memorial Tower and the North Steps
Grace and Beauty Fountain	1901		Horticultural Center, West Fairmount Park		white marble
Bell H. Crump Fountain	1907		Original: Broad Street, Fairmount Avenue & Ridge Avenue Current: 350 E. Erie Avenue	Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals	granite	Installed at the intersection of Broad Street, Fairmount Avenue, and Ridge Avenue, 1907 Inscription: "Erected by Bell H. Crump 1907" Relocated 1954 Now installed in front of the Pennsylvania SPCA Philadelphia Veterinary Clinic:
Mary Rebecca Darby Smith Memorial Fountain Rebecca at the Well	1908		Original: 12th & Spring Garden Streets Current: Horticultural Drive, West Fairmount Park	Philadelphia Fountain Society John J. Boyle, sculptor	bronze & red granite	Funded with $5000 left to the Society by Smith, and based on her own design Inscription: "Drink and I will give thy camels drink also" Installed at 12th & Spring Garden Streets, 1908 Removed and placed in storage, 1922 Installed in West Fairmount Park, 1934
Annie L. Lowry Memorial Fountain	1909		3rd & Bainbridge Streets	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals John Sheehan's Marble & Granite Works, 3805-7 Woodland Ave., Phila., maker	granite	Erected at a cost of $1,500, with money left in Lowry's will. Inscriptions: "Drink Gentle Friends." "In Memory of Annie L. Lowry 1910." "W. P. S. P. C. A." Dedicated by Caroline Earle White on May 12, 1909 Listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Annie L. Lowry Memorial Horse Trough	1910		Original: Fairmount Avenue & 21st Street? Current: 147 N. 2nd Street	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals John Sheehan's Marble & Granite Works, 3805-7 Woodland Ave., Phila., maker	granite	Inscription: "The Gift of Mrs. A. L. Lowry." Relocated to Engine Company #8, 2nd & Quarry Streets. The former firehouse is now the Fireman's Hall Museum: Listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Annie L. Lowry Memorial Horse Trough	1910		Original: 69th Street Terminal? Current: Ridge Avenue & Fountain Street	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals John Sheehan's Marble & Granite Works, 3805-7 Woodland Ave., Phila., maker	granite	Inscription: "In Memory of Mrs. Annie L. Lowry. Women's Pa. S. P. C. A."
Annie L. Lowry Memorial Horse Trough	1910		Original: Newtown Square? Current: Women's Animal Center, 3839 Richlieu Road, Bensalem	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals John Sheehan's Marble & Granite Works, 3805-7 Woodland Ave., Phila., maker	granite	Relocated to E. Logan Street, east of Stenton Avenue, when? Relocated to Women's Animal Center, 2019
Annie L. Lowry Memorial Horse Trough	1910		Original: Lansdowne? Current: Nitre Hall, 1682 Karakung Drive, Haverford	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals John Sheehan's Marble & Granite Works, 3805-7 Woodland Ave., Phila., maker	granite	Inscription: In Memory of Mrs. Annie L. Lowry Women's Pa. S. P. C. A. Unveiled November 28, 1910 Relocated from Burmont & Glendale Roads to Powder Mill Valley Park, 1973 Relocated to grounds of Nitre Hall, 2019
Edward Wetherill Memorial Fountain Horse Trough at 315 S 9th St	circa 1910		315 S. 9th Street	Philadelphia Fountain Society	granite	Inscription: "A merciful man is merciful to his beast" Inscription: "Edward Wetherill 1821 — 1908" Listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
John Harrison Memorial Fountain	circa 1910		Kelly Drive, East Fairmount Park		limestone	Inscription: "In memory of John Harrison 1834 — 1909" "The Harrison Memorial Lithia Spring and Water Trough"
Annie L. Lowry Memorial Horse Trough	1913		Aldan Borough	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals John Sheehan?	granite	Inscription: "Del. Co. S. P. C. A."
Harriett S. French Fountain	1914		Belmont Avenue, West Fairmount Park	Women's Christian Temperance Union	granite	Inscriptions: "Harriet S. French, M.D." ; "W. C. T. U." "Harriet S. French Fountain, east side of Belmont avenue, about 50 yards north of Belmont drive." Dr. Harriet Schneider French was president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Philadelphia.
Lion's Head Drinking Fountain	circa 1915		University of Pennsylvania Museum 33rd & South Streets	Alexander Stirling Calder, sculptor	white marble & granite	In foreground, below the entrance steps:
J. William White Memorial Drinking Fountain	1921		Rittenhouse Square	Rittenhouse Square Flower Market Association Paul Philippe Cret, architect R. Tait McKenzie, sculptor	limestone & bronze	Dr. J. William White was a prominent surgeon and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sarah Cresson Memorial Horse Trough	1922		Original: Front Street & Erie Avenue Current: 3rd & Spring Garden Streets	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals	granite	Cresson bequeathed funds to the Women's PSPCA for three horse troughs, all installed in 1922.
Sarah Cresson Memorial Horse Trough	1922		Broad Street, Oregon Avenue & Moyamensing Avenue	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals	granite	Inscription: "In Memoriam Sarah Cresson 1922" Installed on a traffic island, north of Marconi Plaza
Sarah Cresson Memorial Horse Trough	1922		NE corner Windrim Avenue & Broad Street	Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals	granite	Inscription: "In Memoriam Sarah Cresson 1922" This originally may have been installed on the adjacent traffic island, formed by Broad Street, Windrim Avenue and Ruscomb Street.
Two Standing Birds Fountain	circa 1926–1929		University of Pennsylvania Museum 33rd & South Streets	Alexander Stirling Calder, sculptor Day & Klauder, architects	white marble
Lemon Hill Pet Fountain			Sedgeley Drive, East Fairmount Park		granite	Inscription: "John IV. 13. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again"