Swann Memorial Fountain

 Posted by on February 28, 2018
Feb 282018
 

Logan Square
Philadelphia, PA

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The Swann Memorial Fountain (also known as the Fountain of the Three Rivers) is by Alexander Stirling Calder (who has shown up on these pages before) and designed with architect Wilson Eyre.

The fountain memorializes Dr. Wilson Cary Swann, founder of the Philadelphia Fountain Society.

Swann Fountain Philadelphia Calder created large Native American figures to symbolize the area’s major streams, the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and the Wissahickon.

Swann Fountain Philadelphia

The mature woman holding the neck of a swan stands for the Schuylkill River

Sculpted frogs and turtles spout water toward the 50-foot geyser in the center, though typically the geyser only spouts 25 ft. The use of swans is an obvious pun on Dr. Swann’s name.

Swann Fountain Philadelphia

The young girl leaning on her side represents the Wissahickon Creek

The male figure, reaching above his head to grasp his bow as a large pike sprays water over him, symbolizes the Delaware River.

The male figure, reaching above his head to grasp his bow as a large pike sprays water over him, symbolizes the Delaware River.

In late 19th century Philadelphia it became all the rage among the reform-minded elite to donate curbside fountains to help bring fresh water to the city. Groups like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Women’s Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (WPSPCA), and the Philadelphia Fountain Society paid to install and maintain public drinking fountains for – as the Fountain Society’s mission stated – “the health and refreshment of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, and for the benefit of the animals used by them.”

Frogs and also spray water into the fountain

Frogs and turtles also spray water into the fountain

Dr. Wilson Cary Swann put the need plainly in a speech to supporters in 1870: “The suffering caused by the absence of water in our streets is beyond description.”

In the early days of the Fountain Society that dual appeal was made explicit for benefactors: “The greatest enemy to temperance, morality, and virtue is more or less associated with thirst, ” said Swann in that same speech. “Let these fountains be erected at convenient distances along our streets, and the temptation to resort to drinking saloons will soon be abated and, in time, abolished.”

Logan Square Swann Fountain PhiladelphiaThe crossover appeal among Philadelphians interested in alleviating animal cruelty, promoting temperance, and improving public health resulted in an explosion of fountain installation well into the early 20th century.

According to Fountain Society records, in 1880 there were 50 fountains operating 180 days per year, serving an estimated 3 million people and 1 million horses and other animals.

Though the horse fountain-building fad faded as the 20th century continued,  new ones were installed throughout the city into the 1940s.

Swann Fountain

 

Lee Kelly Fountain

 Posted by on October 20, 2014
Oct 202014
 

Southwest 6th Avenue and Pine Street
Portland, OR

Lee Kelly Fountain, Portland Oregon

Oregon artist Lee Kelly, often referred to as “Oregon’s Sculptor” won an international competition to design this sculpture “Untitled.”  In this work, water flows over several 20-foot-tall steel structures.

Born in rural McCall in central Idaho, Kelly was raised near Riggins, Idaho.  In the 1950s he graduated from what is now Portland State University before joining the United States Air Force. During the late 1950s he attended Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He presently lives in Oregon City, Oregon.

Hotel Pacific

 Posted by on August 19, 2014
Aug 192014
 

300 Pacific Street
Monterey, California

Hotel Pacific Monterey California

Michael H. Casey sculpted these fountains for the Hotel Pacific in 1986.

Hotel Pacific Fountains

The joy of working on a beautiful hotel such as this is that you get to stay there while installing the fountains.  It became the go to place to stay whenever we were in the Monterey area.

Hotel Pacific Monterey, California

Including when Michael H. Casey and Cecil Mark sailed the “Question Mark” a 36′ sail boat to Monterey and back.

Empire Park

 Posted by on March 11, 2013
Mar 112013
 

600 Block of Commercial Street at Kearny
Empire Park
Chinatown

Fountain by Pepo Pichler

Empire Park (once called Grabhorn Park) is a POPOS (privately-owned public open space). It is provided and maintained by, The Empire Group, owners of 505 Montgomery Street. The spire perched atop 505 Montgomery is said to be a replica of the Empire State Building, but that is most likely because a giant inflatable gorilla was hung from the spire to announce the opening of the building.

This tiny little park is an oasis on a beautiful, carless portion of Commercial Street. The delightful water feature is by Pepo Pichler and is the focal point of the courtyard. In the spring, the entrance is draped in white wisteria. Other highlights are gigantic tree ferns planted throughout and potato vines climbing up the surrounding buildings.

Pepo Pilcher was born in 1948 in Klagenfurt, Austria. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to San Francisco in 1975 and now commutes between Austria and San Francisco.

Empire Park in San Francisco

This street holds so much San Francisco History:

Not far from Empire Park at  650/652 Commercial Street is the former site of the Eureka which was once the site of the Eureka Lodgings, where, paying 50 cents a day, Emperor Norton lived for 17 years, from sometime in either late 1862 or early 1863 until his death in January of 1880.

Emperor Norton in the 1870s. (Source – Collection of the California Historical Society)

In the newspaper offices of The San Francisco Call Building, next door at 636 Commercial one could have found Mark Twain writing at his desk on the 3rd floor during his 18-month tenure in the 1860s, or Bret Harte, working for the Mint just one floor down in sublet offices on the second floor.

Twain once wrote of Emperor Norton: “Oh, dear, it was always a painful thing to me to see the Emperor (Norton I., of San Francisco) begging; for although nobody else believed he was an Emperor, he believed it. … What an odd thing it is, that neither Frank Soulé, nor Charley Warren Stoddard, nor I, nor Bret Harte the Immortal Bilk, nor any other professionally literary person of S.F., has ever “written up” the Emperor Norton. Nobody has ever written him up who was able to see any but his (ludicrous or his) grotesque side; but I think that with all his dirt & unsavoriness there was a pathetic side to him. Anybody who said so in print would be laughed at in S.F., doubtless, but no matter, I have seen the Emperor when his dignity was wounded; and when he was both hurt & indignant at the dishonoring of an imperial draft; & when he was full of trouble & bodings on account of the presence of the Russian fleet, he connecting it with his refusal to ally himself with the Romanoffs by marriage, & believing these ships were come to take advantage of his entanglements with Peru & Bolivia; I have seen him in all his various moods & tenses, & there was always more room for pity than laughter. He believed he was a natural son of one of the English Georges–but I wander from my subject.”
– letter to William Dean Howells, September 3, 1880

Despite this letter, Twain would later base the character of “The King” in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, on Emperor Norton.

 

First U.S. Branch Mint

608 Commerical Street:

The original mint is no longer there. At present, the home of the San Francisco Historical Society occupies the 1875 U.S. Subtreasury Building, which was built after the original mint building was demolished.

Privately-owned public open spaces (POPOS) are publicly accessible spaces in forms of plazas, terraces, atriums, small parks, and even snippets that are provided and maintained by private developers. In San Francisco, POPOS mostly appear in the Downtown office district area. Prior to 1985, developers provided POPOS under three general circumstances: voluntarily, in exchange for a density bonus, or as a condition of approval. The 1985 Downtown Plan created the first systemic requirements for developers to provide publicly accessible open space as a part of projects.

The Downtown Plan also established the “1% Art Program” which is how the fountain came to be.

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