Temperance fountain
{{Short description|Drinking fountain set up to encourage abstinence from alcohol}}
{{globalize|date=October 2020}}
File:Benson Bubbler.jpg" in downtown Portland]]
A temperance fountain was a fountain that was set up, usually by a private benefactor, to encourage temperance, and to make abstinence from beer possible by the provision of clean, safe, and free water. The temperance societies had no real alternative as tea and coffee were too expensive, so drinking fountains were very attractive.
Temperance fountains in the United States
{{Multiple image
| header = Temperance fountains by Henry D. Cogswell
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| image1= Boston, Massachusetts. Boston Common. Cogswell drinking fountain Digital Commonwealth df65xs507.jpg
| caption1 = Boston Common, ca. 1890
| image2 = Cogswell fountain incident, San Francisco Call.jpg
| caption2= Destruction of Cogswell's fountain in San Francisco, 1894; San Francisco Call
| image3 = Temperance Fountain Tompkins Sq Park from north.jpg
| caption3 = Tompkins Square Park, New York City
| image4= Temperance Fountain, Pawtucket, Rhode Island.jpg
| image5 = Temperance Fountain (4aac9026-1fb8-417e-b41c-0a025fe5b774).jpg
| caption5 = Washington, D.C.
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{{main|Drinking fountains in the United States}}
Muddied and bad tasting drinking water encouraged many Americans to drink alcohol for health purposes, so temperance groups constructed public drinking fountains throughout the United States following the Civil War. The National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (NWCTU)'s organizing convention of 1874 encouraged its attendees to erect the fountains in their hometowns. The NWCTU advocated the fountains as a means to discourage people from entering saloons for refreshment.{{cite web|title=WCTU Drinking Fountains - Then and Now|url=http://www.wctu.org/fountains.html|work=Woman's Christian Temperance Union|publisher=Woman's Christian Temperance Union|accessdate=9 June 2012|year=1996–2009|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111014112806/http://wctu.org/fountains.html|archivedate=14 October 2011}} The NWCTU sponsored temperance fountains in towns and cities across the United States.[http://www.wctu.org/fountains.html WCTU Drinking Fountains – Then and Now] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111014112806/http://wctu.org/fountains.html |date=2011-10-14 }}, from Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Cast-stone statues of Hebe were marketed for use in temperance fountains. In New York City, the James Fountain in Union Square Park{{cite web|url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/union-square-park/monuments/797 |title=Union Square Park Monuments - Union Square Drinking Fountain : NYC Parks |publisher=Nycgovparks.org |date=2006-04-28 |accessdate=2015-07-28}} is a Temperance fountain with the figure of Charity who empties her jug of water, aided by a child; it was donated by Daniel Willis James and sculpted by Adolf Donndorf.{{cite web|url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/tompkinssquarepark/highlights/12753 |title=Tompkins Square Park Highlights - Temperance Fountain |publisher=New York City Department of Parks & Recreation |date= |accessdate=2011-08-08}}
In Washington DC "the" Temperance Fountain was donated to the city in 1882 by Temperance crusader Henry D. Cogswell. This fountain was one of a series of fountains he designed and commissioned in a belief that easy access to cool drinking water would prevent people from consuming alcohol.{{cite news | url=http://www.rockvillect.com/Cogswell/fountain.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041011051435/http://www.rockvillect.com/Cogswell/fountain.htm | url-status=usurped | archive-date=October 11, 2004 | title=Town Plans to Restore Fountain as Part of Park Project | publisher=The Hartford Courant | first=Lee | last=Foster | date=April 6, 2004 | accessdate=2007-06-10}} Under its stone canopy the words "Faith," "Hope," "Charity," and "Temperance" are chiseled. Atop this canopy is a life-sized heron, and the centerpiece is a pair of entwined heraldic scaly dolphins. Originally, visitors were supposed to freely drink ice water flowing from the dolphins' snouts with a brass cup attached to the fountain and the overflow was collected by a trough for horses, but the city tired of replenishing the ice in a reservoir beneath the base and disconnected the supply pipes. Other Cogswell fountains include one still standing in New York City's Tompkins Square Park,{{cite web|url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/tompkins-square-park/history |title=Tompkins Square Park Highlights : NYC Parks |publisher=Nycgovparks.org |date= |accessdate=2015-07-28}}{{cite web|url=http://thevillager.com/2012/09/20/history-lessons-flow-from-two-temperance-fountains/ |title=History lessons flow from two temperance fountains | The Villager Newspaper |publisher=Thevillager.com |date= 20 September 2012|accessdate=2015-07-28}} and one in downtown Pawtucket, Rhode Island (1880).{{cite web |last1=Duffy |first1=Kathrinne |title="God's Free Gift to Man and Beast" |url=https://rhodetour.org/items/show/31 |website=Rhode Tour |access-date=13 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512020940/https://rhodetour.org/items/show/31 |archive-date=12 May 2021}}
These grandiose statues were not all well received by the communities where they were placed.{{cite news| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/03/13/106096693.pdf| title=Weeding Out Bad Sculpture| work=The New York Times| date=March 13, 1894}} Washington, DC's Temperance Fountain has been called "the city's ugliest statue"{{cite news | title=...Toasted Temperance | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40962-2003Sep20.html | newspaper=Washington Post | date=September 21, 2003 | pages=C02 | accessdate=2007-06-10}} and spurred city councils across the country to set up fine arts commissions to screen such gifts.{{cite book | first=Bryson | last=Rash |authorlink=Bryson Rash| title=Footnote Washington | publisher=EPM Publications | year=1983 | isbn=0-914440-62-4 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/footnotewashingt0000rash }}
Although the D.C. statue survived mostly unscathed, the California and Market Street, San Francisco Statue of Henry D. Cogswell and Fountain was pulled down[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94052989/1894-01-03/ed-1/seq-8/ The morning call., January 03, 1894, Page 8, (San Francisco [Calif.])] on New Year's Eve Night of 1893-1894 by "a lynch party of self-professed art lovers" including Gelett Burgess (who was subsequently fired from his job at University of California at Berkeley),{{cite news | title=Fountain of Hooch | url=http://kakopa.com/geo/cogswell.htm | publisher=Washington City Paper | first=Greg | last=Kitsock | date=January 3, 1992 | accessdate=2009-10-10}}
Cogswell's 1879{{cite web |url=http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0000120.htm |title=FRANKLIN, Benjamin statue in Washington Square in San Francisco, California |publisher=Dcmemorials.com |date= |accessdate=2015-07-28 |archive-date=2014-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903111419/http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0000120.htm |url-status=dead }} Ben Franklin statue and temperance fountain in Washington Square, San Francisco remains unscathed to this day.{{cite web|url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1K091S8190R05.4815&menu=search&aspect=Keyword&npp=50&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=ariall&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&index=.NW&term=CA000016+OR+CA000029&x=0&y=0&aspect=Keyword |title=SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System |publisher=Siris-artinventories.si.edu |date= |accessdate=2015-07-28}} One in Rockville, Connecticut, was thrown into Shenipsic Lake.{{cite news | title=Back where he belongs: Dr. Henry Cogswell statue once again graces Rockville's Central Park | url=http://www.rockvillect.com/Cogswell/dedication.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060223111014/http://www.rockvillect.com/Cogswell/dedication.htm | url-status=usurped | archive-date=February 23, 2006 | publisher=Rockville Reminder | first=Jessica | last=Ciparelli | date=November 1, 2005 | accessdate=2007-06-10}} In Dubuque, Iowa, a statue of Cogswell in Washington Park was pulled down by a group of vandals in 1900 and buried under the ground of a planned sidewalk. The next day the sidewalk was poured and the object was entombed. When new sidewalks were recently laid, the statue was not found.{{cite web | url=http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ab8994ab-8201-4ca1-b9be-9e1f2eefd8da | title=Monument Park | publisher=Geocaching.org | accessdate=2007-06-10}}
Simon Benson, an Oregon lumberman, was a teetotaler who wanted to discourage his workers from drinking alcohol in the middle of the day. In 1912, Benson gave the City of Portland USD $10,000 for the installation of 20 bronze drinking fountains. As of March 2014, these fountains, known as "Benson Bubblers", remain functional in downtown Portland.{{cite news|title=Water Bureau: Benson Bubbler bowl was stolen|url=http://www.kptv.com/story/17649428/water-bureau-reports-benson-bubbler-bowl-was-stolen|accessdate=9 June 2012|newspaper=FOX 12 Oregon|date=20 May 2012|author=Jolie Wolfe|archive-date=23 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623004751/http://www.kptv.com/story/17649428/water-bureau-reports-benson-bubbler-bowl-was-stolen|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Benson Bubbler, 3rd and Burnside. Portland Oregon, February 2, 2012.|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/47911905@N00/6820769915/|work=flickr|publisher=Yahoo! Inc|accessdate=9 June 2012|author=Dan Haneckow|format=Image file|date=2 February 2012}}
Temperance fountains in the United Kingdom
File:Temperance Fountain Clapham Common evening 2005.jpg, London]]
The provision of drinking fountains in the United Kingdom was also linked to the temperance movement in the United Kingdom, with the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association in London drawing support from temperance advocates. Many of its fountains were sited opposite public houses. The evangelical movement was encouraged to build fountains in churchyards to encourage the poor to see churches as supporting them. Many fountains have inscriptions such as "Jesus said whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whosoever drinketh of the water I shall give him shall never thirst". By 1877, the association was widely accepted and Queen Victoria donated money for a fountain in Esher.
Many fountains, within London and outside, were called temperance fountains or would have a representation of the Greek mythical figure Temperance.
Examples
Many temperance fountains were erected:
- Women's Christian Temperance Union Public Fountain in Shendendoah, Iowa
- Temperance Fountain (Washington, DC)
- Tompkins Square Park temperance fountain, New York City
- Woman's Christian Temperance Union Fountain in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
- San Francisco temperance fountain
- Wallace fountains (Paris)
- 1912 WCTU Stone drinking Fountain (Arcata, CA)
- The Benson Bubblers in Portland, Oregon
References
{{Commons category|Temperance fountains}}
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