Hebe Fountain

Location: Salem, Ohio, USA

The drinking fountain once located at South Broadway Avenue near State Street was installed on 22 August 1889. Twenty two years later it was removed due to the impending Youngstown and Ohio River Railroad which required the fountain’s removal to improve traffic flow. In addition, public awareness of the spread of Yellow Fever and Typhoid from communal water sources heralded the elimination of drinking fountains.

It was removed on 28 November 1911. A report in the Salem News stated that several people wept when the statue surmounting the fountain was taken down. The statue of Hebe was never seen again. It is likely that it was recycled as many ornamental iron decorations were requisitioned during the Second World War as raw material for the war industries.

The fountain was manufactured by J. L. Mott Iron Works of New York. The structure was seated on an octagonal stone plinth. It consisted of a single pedestal with attic base and canted corners surmounted by a 5’ bronze statue. Eight arched cornices contained dolphin mascarons, symbolic of guardians of water. Four of the dolphins spouted water into demi-lune fluted basins. Water was retrieved by tin drinking cups suspended on chains which required replacement in 1891.

An attic base supported a short column containing 4 inset panels bounded by pilasters. The panels offered bas-relief with the option of a dedication plaque.

The capital supported a statue of Hebe, a Greek goddess, based on the 1806 sculpture by Berthel Thorvaldsen. The daughter of Zeus and Hera, Hebe is the Greek goddess of Youth and Spring, and proffers the cup of immortality at the table of the gods. The statue is classically dressed in flowing robes gathered at the waist. Her head is tilted down and to the left, and her hair is held by a headband or ribbon. Her left leg is bent and her weight is on her right leg. (This stance is called contrapposto, where one leg bears the weight and the other leg is relaxed.) She gazes at a raised cup in her left hand while holding a pitcher beside her right thigh.

Glossary

• Attic base, a column base with two rings
• Bas-relief, sculpted material that has been raised from the background to create a slight projection from the surface
• Canted corner, an angled surface which cuts of a corner
• Capital, the top of a column that supports the load bearing down on it
• Contrapposto, stance where one leg bears the weight and the other leg is relaxed
• Cornice, a molding or ornamentation that projects from the top of a building
• Demi-lune, half moon or crescent shape
• Fluted, a long rounded groove
• Mascaron, a decorative element in the form of a sculpted face or head of a human being or an animal
• Pedestal, an architectural support for a column or statue
• Pilaster, a column form that is only ornamental and not supporting a structure
• Plinth, flat base usually projecting, upon which a pedestal, wall or column rests.

Max Wagner Fountain

Location: Nantucket, MA, USA

The drinking fountain located at Max Wagner Square was anonymously donated to the town in 1885 and installed at the top of Main Street. In 1893 at the same time as the street lighting was installed it was relocated to bottom of the Main Street in Town Square and disconnected from the water main. The cobblestones which pave the street were brought to the island as ballast in ships.

The square and the drinking fountain were dedicated in 1932 to the memory of Lieutenant Max Wagner, who lost his life in the Spanish-American War. Born in 1866 in Charleston, South Carolina he moved to Nantucket and married Jennie Macy, a descendant of the very first of the English founding families on Nantucket. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Wagner already a U. S. Army veteran re-enlisted, serving first in Puerto Rico and then in the Philippines where he was killed in 1900.

A sign mounted on the lamp pillar identifies Lieut. Max Wagner Sq. U.S.W.V.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenbaum/3298673994

The drinking fountain is unique in that it has not been removed, as so many others around the country were, to improve flow of traffic. Vehicles on Main Street are directed around the structure which the Nantucket Garden Club maintains with seasonal flowers and greens.

Circa 1937. Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association

Circa 1950 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association

Circa 1950

The drinking fountain/horse trough is identified as design #3 for man and beast in Henry F. Jenks’ foundry catalog. The 24 feet high structure manufactured in cast iron consists of a solid base with an annular channel for use as a dog trough.

A pedestal with attic base hosts arched panels for dedication or bas-relief enrichment. A movable panel in one side offered access to plumbing. A circular horse trough standing 4 feet 3 inches above ground level was a comfortable height for horses to drink and had the capacity to hold a barrel of water (42 gallons).

The centre of the basin contains a jamb from which dolphin mascarons spouted water and drinking cups were attached. Waste water was directed to the dog trough at street level. This design prevented contagious distemper.

The fountain was provided with self closing faucets and the pipes within were constructed to resist freezing in cold temperatures. Fountains were supplied both with and without an ice box attachment as desired. An ice box was placed near the sidewalk underground, which was provided with coils of tin lined pipe on which ice was placed to cool the water flowing through the coils to the outlet of the fountain.

The fluted lamp pillar originally terminating in a gas lantern now hosts an electric bulb.

Glossary:

• Annular; circular, ring shaped
• Attic base, a column base with two rings
• Bas-relief, sculpted material that has been raised from the background to create a slight projection from the surface
• Fluted Shaft, a long rounded groove decorating the shaft of a column
• Jamb, a projecting vertical post containing sculpture
• Mascaron, a decorative element in the form of a sculpted face or head of a human being or an animal
• Pedestal, an architectural support for a column or statue