Philadelphia's Logan Square fountain turns 100 years old
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An iconic fixture of the Philadelphia cityscape is celebrating a major milestone birthday.
The Swann Memorial Fountain in the city's Logan Square is now 100 years old after it was first unveiled in July 1924.
A fixture inside the traffic circle on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and visible from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the fountain features multiple sculptures by Alexander Stirling Calder, depicting three reclining Native American figures emitting water — each representing a different major waterway around Philadelphia — the Delaware, the Schuylkill and the Wissahickon Creek.
Architect Wilson Eyre Jr. designed the fountain and worked with Calder. By the way, Calder's father, Alexander Milne Calder, sculpted the 36-foot-tall William Penn statue that sits atop City Hall.
The fountain is named for Wilson Cary Swann, a cofounder of the Philadelphia Fountain Society, former president of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and an early member of the organization that would become the Union League of Philadelphia.
The fountain was commissioned years after a bequest from Swann's widow, Maria E. Swann.
The Philadelphia Fountain Society would name the fountain after Wilson Cary Swann when it was unveiled in July 1924, 48 years after his death in 1876.
According to the University of Virginia, Swann had a goal of constructing fountains around the city to "promote temperance and relieve animal suffering."
He was aligned with a movement among temperance activists to expand public drinking water access. Organizations in the temperance movement sought to build freshwater fountains across the city, offering humans something non-alcoholic to drink. At the same time, horse carriages were all over the city and pro-animal organizations like the PSPCA wanted horses, dogs and other animals to have a place to hydrate.
The fountain is a common gathering place and swimming spot on hot summer days. It was also home to an end-of-school tradition.
Students at the now-shuttered John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School, just a few blocks up 19th Street, would celebrate the end of the school year by jumping into the fountain in their school uniforms.
