History of fountains in the United States facts for kids

The Court of Neptune Fountain at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Roland Hinton Perry. (1895).

Fountains are special structures that make water flow or shoot into the air. The first decorative fountain in the United States was opened in Philadelphia in 1809. Back then, early American fountains were mainly used to give people clean drinking water. They didn't have much decoration and often looked like European fountains.

Later, in the 1900s, many American fountains stopped being used for drinking water. They became more about beauty and art. These new fountains were built to honor important events or people. Some were like big sculptures in cities, while others tried to look like natural waterfalls. By the late 1900s, a new type of fountain became popular: the musical fountain. These fountains use computers to make water "dance" with lights and music. You can see famous musical fountains in places like Las Vegas, where they are a fun show for everyone.

Early American Fountains (1800-1900)

Fourth of July in Centre Square (c.1809-12), John Lewis Krimmel, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Philadelphia was the first city in the U.S. to build a city-wide water system. It started working in January 1801. Water from the Schuylkill River traveled through underground pipes. Steam pumps then pushed this water into a tall water tower in Centre Square, which is now where Philadelphia City Hall stands.

An architect named Benjamin Henry Latrobe designed this water system. Centre Square, once a simple field, was turned into a public park. A beautiful fountain was added there between 1808 and 1809. A sculptor named William Rush carved a wooden statue called Allegory of the Schuylkill River for this fountain. It's also known as Water Nymph with Bittern.

New York City also built large fountains to mark the end points of its new water pipes. A serious sickness called cholera in 1832 and a huge fire in 1835 made the city realize it needed more fresh water. So, they built the Croton Aqueduct, which brought water 40 miles from the Croton River to New York City.

When the aqueduct was finished in 1841, a special fountain called the Croton Fountain was turned on in City Hall Park on October 14, 1842. It shot water 50 feet high! Another fountain in Union Square was also connected to this new water system. These first fountains were very simple, just spouting water. They didn't have sculptures and don't exist anymore, but parts of the old water system are still around.

In 1848, Boston also completed its own water system. It brought water from Lake Cochituate, about 20 miles away, to the Boston Common. A big parade and festival celebrated the opening of the first fountain there on October 25, 1848. Schoolchildren even sang a special song written by the poet James Russell Lowell for the event.

While early American fountains were simple and useful, by the 1850s, cities wanted more decorative ones. They were inspired by European designs and aimed to make American cities more beautiful with parks, squares, and fountains.

Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, New York (1873)

A great example is the Bethesda Fountain in New York City's new Central Park. This huge park project began in 1858, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. In the middle of the park, they planned a formal area with elm trees and a terrace overlooking a lake. In 1863, the park leaders decided to build a large fountain for the central part of this area.

The sculptor chosen was Emma Stebbins, an American artist. Her fountain was inspired by a Bible story from the Gospel of John. In the story, an angel touched the waters of the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, giving them healing powers. Stebbins wrote that pure, clean water brings "healing, comfort and purification" to the city's homes, like an "angel visitant." When it opened in 1873, some people didn't like it at first. The New York Times called it "a feebly-pretty idealess thing." But over time, the fountain became very popular and has appeared in many movies and plays.

Modern Fountains (1900-2000)

Between 1900 and 1950, many fountains in the United States still looked like older European or classical styles. For example:

• The beautiful Samuel Francis Dupont Memorial Fountain (also known as Dupont Circle Fountain) in Washington, D.C., was designed in 1921. Its creators, Henry Bacon and Daniel Chester French, also worked on the Lincoln Memorial. It has a pure neoclassical style.
• The Buckingham Fountain in Chicago's Grant Park was one of the first American fountains to use strong modern pumps. These pumps could shoot water as high as 150 feet (46 meters) into the air!
• The Fountain of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York City, built in 1933, was the first American fountain in the Art Deco style. It features a sculpture by Paul Manship.

After World War II, fountains in the U.S. started to look very different. Some, like the Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco (1971), were like giant sculptures. The artist, Armand Vaillancourt, built this large fountain in a cubist style. He also wanted it to share a political message, even painting slogans on it when it opened.

Other fountains were designed to be part of a landscape and tell a story. An example is the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial Waterfall (1997), designed by architect Lawrence Halprin. This fountain is part of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.. The memorial has four outdoor "rooms" that show different parts of President Roosevelt's time in office. Each room has a waterfall or cascade. The one in the third room shows the difficult times of World War II. Halprin wanted the whole memorial to feel like a sculpture that you could "touch, feel, hear and contact - with all the senses."

One of the most unique modern American fountains is the Civil Rights Memorial (1989). It's located at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. It was designed by Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Civil Rights Memorial fountain has a low, round table made of black granite. A thin layer of water flows over its surface, where the names of civil rights leaders who lost their lives are carved. This design is inspired by a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: "...Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Visitors can touch the names through the water. Lin explained that the water is very still until you touch it, and your hand creates ripples, changing the artwork.

Significant Fountains in the United States

Name	Image	Location	Architect(s)	Sculptor(s)	Year completed	Notes
Bartholdi Fountain Fountain of Light and Water		United States Botanical Gardens, Washington, D.C.		Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi	Philadelphia, 1876 Washington, D.C., 1878	Shown at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. First U.S. fountain lit by gaslight.
Bethesda Fountain		Central Park, Manhattan, New York City	Calvert Vaux	Emma Stebbins	1873	"Angel of the Waters"
Buckingham Fountain		Chicago, Illinois	Edward H. Bennett	Marcel F. Loyau	1927	The central jet shoots up 150 feet (46 m).
Centennial Fountain Nicholas J. Melas Centennial Fountain		Chicago, Illinois	Lohan Associates		1989	The jet shoots across the Chicago River.
Civil Rights Memorial		Montgomery, Alabama	Maya Lin		1989	Water flows over a table with civil rights events.
Coleman Memorial Fountain		Sacramento, California		Ralph Stackpole	1927
Columbus Fountain Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain		Union Station, Washington, D.C.	Daniel Burnham	Lorado Taft	1912	"The Spirit of Discovery" looks like a ship's figurehead.
Corning Fountain		Bushnell Park, Hartford, Connecticut		J. Massey Rhind	1899	The hart (deer) represents the City of Hartford.
Court of Neptune Fountain		Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.	John L. Smithmeyer Paul J. Pelz Edward Pearce Casey	Roland Hinton Perry Albert Weinert (relief sculpture)	1895	Thomas Jefferson Building
Depew Memorial Fountain		Indianapolis, Indiana	Henry Bacon	Karl Bitter Alexander Stirling Calder	1919	Bitter's small model for the fountain. Calder finished the sculpture after Bitter died in 1915.
Donahue Memorial Fountain The Mechanics Monument		San Francisco, California	Willis Polk	Douglas Tilden	1901	The fountain survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Dupont Circle Fountain Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Dupont Memorial Fountain		Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.	Henry Bacon	Daniel Chester French	1921
Fort Worth Water Gardens		Fort Worth, Texas	Philip Johnson John Burgee		1974	Visitors can walk inside the fountain.
Fountain of Eternal Life War Memorial Fountain		Cleveland, Ohio		Marshall Fredericks	1964	"Peace Arising from the Flames of War"
Fountain of the Centaurs and The Signing of the Treaty		Jefferson City, Missouri		Karl Bitter and A.A. Weinman	1927
Fountain of the Great Lakes		Art Institute of Chicago Garden, Chicago, Illinois		Lorado Taft	1913
Fountain Hills Fountain		Fountain Lake, Fountain Hills, Arizona			1970	World's tallest fountain when built (562 feet). Now the fourth-tallest in the world, second-tallest in the U.S.
Fountain of the Rings		Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta, Georgia	EDAW, Inc. William Hobbs, Ltd.		1996	Made for the 1996 Olympic Games.
Fountain of Time		Chicago, Illinois		Lorado Taft	1922	"Father Time"
Fountains of Bellagio		Bellagio Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada	WET (Water Entertainment Technologies)		1998	Water and light show set to music.
Gateway Geyser		Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park, East St. Louis, Illinois			1995	Tallest fountain in the U.S. (630 ft), second-tallest in the world. Matches the height of the Gateway Arch.
LaFayette Fountain		Lafayette, Indiana		Lorado Taft	1882	This was Taft's first fountain.
Littlefield Fountain		University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas	Morison & Walker Paul Cret	Pompeo Coppini Waldine Tauch	1933
Longwood Gardens		Kennett Square, Pennsylvania			Open Air Theatre, 1914 Italian Water Garden, 1927 Main Fountain Garden, 1931	Fountain show in the Open Air Theatre.
Meeting of the Waters Fountain The Wedding of the Waters		Aloe Plaza, Saint Louis, Missouri		Carl Milles	1940	Detail.
National World War II Memorial		National Mall, Washington, D.C.	Friedrich St. Florian	Raymond Kaskey James Peniston	2004	From above.
Jesse Clyde Nichols Memorial Fountain		Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, Missouri	McKim, Mead & White	Henri-Léon Gréber	1910 1960	Made for the "Harbor Hill," estate in Roslyn, New York. Four large horse figures represent great rivers: "The Rhine," "The Seine," "The Volga," and "The Mississippi." Moved to Kansas City in 1960.
Piazza d'Italia		New Orleans, Louisiana	Charles Williard Moore Perez Architects		1978	At night.
Point State Park Fountain		Point State Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania			1970	The jet shoots 150 feet.
Prometheus Fountain		Rockefeller Center, Manhattan, New York City	Raymond Hood	Paul Manship	1933	With ice skaters.
Pulitzer Fountain		Grand Army Plaza, 5th Avenue & Central Park South, Manhattan, New York City	Thomas Hastings	Karl Bitter Isidore Konti<br>Karl Gruppe	1916	"Pomona" Konti and Gruppe finished the sculpture after Bitter died in 1915.
Rackham Memorial Fountain		Detroit Zoo, Royal Oak, Michigan		Corrado Parducci	1939
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial		West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C.	Lawrence Halprin		1997
Russell Ager Memorial Fountain		Detroit, Michigan	Henry Bacon	Daniel Chester French	1921
The Sciences and The Arts Fountains		Jefferson City, Missouri		Robert Ingersoll Aitken	1924
Scott Memorial Fountain		Belle Isle Park, Detroit, Michigan	Cass Gilbert	Herbert Adams	1925	The lowest part is 510 feet (160 m) wide.
Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument		Indianapolis, Indiana	Bruno Schmitz	Rudolf Schwarz Frederick MacMonnies George Brewster<br>Nicholas Geiger	1888	"War," designed by Frederick William MacMonnies, carved by Rudolf Schwarz.
Swann Memorial Fountain Fountain of the Three Rivers		Logan Circle, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Wilson Eyre	Alexander Stirling Calder	1924	"Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River"
Thatcher Memorial Fountain		City Park, Denver, Colorado	J.R.M. Morrison	Lorado Taft	1918
Tyler Davidson Fountain		Fountain Square, Cincinnati, Ohio		August von Kreling Ferdinand von Miller Fritz von Miller Ferdinand Freiherr von Miller	1871	"The Genius of Water" Designed in the 1840s for King Ludwig of Bavaria, but not built then. It was made in Germany in 1870 and sent to the U.S.
Unisphere		Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, New York City	Gilmore D. Clarke		1964	The Unisphere was the main feature of the 1964 New York World's Fair.
Vaillancourt Fountain "Quebec Libre!"		Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco, California		Armand Vaillancourt	1971	The plaza from above.