104-462: Public drinking fountains in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, United States, have been built and used since the 19th century. Various reform-minded organizations in the city supported public drinking fountains as street furniture for different but overlapping reasons. One was the general promotion of public health, in an era of poor water and typhoid fever . Leaders of the temperance movement such as
208-468: A pocket park in a traffic island at the southeast corner of Union Square, which was completed in 2000. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Union Square became a primary public gathering point for mourners. People created spontaneous candle and photograph memorials in the park and vigils were held to honor the victims. At the time, non-emergency vehicles were temporarily banned and pedestrian travel
312-704: A water fountain or water bubbler , is a fountain designed to provide drinking water . It consists of a basin with either continuously running water or a tap . The drinker bends down to the stream of water and swallows water directly from the stream. Modern indoor drinking fountains may incorporate filters to remove impurities from the water and chillers to lower its temperature. Drinking fountains are usually found in public places, like schools, rest areas, libraries, and grocery stores. Drinking fountains are an important source of clean water in urban infrastructure. Many jurisdictions require drinking fountains to be wheelchair accessible (by sticking out horizontally from
416-524: A T-shaped wooden fire hydrant in 1802, that featured "a drinking fountain on one side and a 4-1/2-inch water main on the other." The hydrants were installed along every major street of the city. Latrobe's Greek Revival pumping house and the gardens surrounding it became a major attraction. Graff was promoted to manager of the Water Works in 1805, and designed the fountain for Centre Square. The Watering Committee commissioned sculptor William Rush to create
520-530: A concert plaza with a bandstand at the park's northern end. There were also plans to relocate the Washington statue to Washington Square Park , although this proposal was opposed. Although the city decided to keep the Washington statue in Union Square Park, the statue was relocated to the southeast corner to make way for a flagpole honoring former Tammany Hall leader Charles F. Murphy . Landscaping of
624-461: A gathering point for many of the city's socialist and communist groups. The centennial of Union Square was seen as a thinly veiled effort to displace those elements with its draping of the square with flags and police demonstrations of anti protester drills. The Villager , a local newspaper, reported in 2013 that most of the street chess players at Washington Square Park —where Bobby Fischer had played—had moved their games to Union Square because
728-765: A grant-providing organisation. The Fountain Society was linked to the Pennsylvania branch of the newly formed American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , co-founded in June 1868 by Colonel Mark Richards Muckle of the Public Ledger . The two had shared motivations, and Swann was involved in both. As of September 1869, press reports claimed "a very commendable rivalry in the erection of drinking fountains for man and beast will spring up between those two admirable associations",
832-457: A large equestrian statue of U.S. President George Washington , modeled by Henry Kirke Brown and unveiled in 1856. Located at the south end of the park, it was the first public sculpture erected in New York City since the equestrian statue of George III in 1770, and the first American equestrian sculpture cast in bronze. The Marquis de Lafayette , at Union Square East and 16th Street,
936-554: A lifetime membership. The society's first fountain went up in April 1869, adjacent to Washington Square , at 7th and Walnut Streets. A cast iron eagle perched on top, and below the plaque were two troughs, one for horses, one for dogs. (It was relocated to the south side of the square in 1916.) That same year, work began on two fountains for the 500 block of Chestnut Street, in front of Independence Hall . Prominent citizens such as John Wanamaker and Anthony Joseph Drexel provided funding to
1040-640: A marble basin. The construction bears the date 1854 ... Upon a slab above the niche are cut the words " Pro bono publico "; beneath the basin these, " Esto perpetua ". In the 1860s, philanthropic groups and governments across the United States began to fund the building of water fountains, including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1867 (in Union Square in New York City), and
1144-590: A member of the Women's Society who had long been active in seeking better conditions for animals in Philadelphia, and the late Mrs. A. L. Lowry, another woman who for years had sought successfully to aid in the comfort of the dumb beasts, debated over the filthiness of many of the water troughs located around the city. They made personal appeals in many cases to saloon keepers where they found trough conditions especially flagrant. Sometimes their efforts were successful, and again
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#17330848545321248-471: A square at the union. In 1815, by act of the state legislature, this former potter's field became a public commons for the city, at first named Union Place. Union Place originally was supposed to extend from 10th to 17th Streets. Several city officials objected that Union Place was too large and requested that it be "discontinued", and in 1814, the New York State Legislature acted to downsize
1352-617: A statue, Allegory of the Schuylkill River , to be its centerpiece. Better known as Water Nymph with Bittern , it was carved from pine and painted white (in imitation of marble). The first public fountain in Philadelphia was unveiled in August 1809. The idea of purpose-built drinking fountains was relatively novel. The first public drinking fountains in England appeared in Liverpool in 1854, through
1456-518: A veterinary hospital in the city, an animal refuge, owned and maintained 50 street fountains open all year, and put up additional seasonal horse-watering stations in the city from May through November. During the season from April to November [the fountains] are so constantly patronized in busy portions of the city that water is at all times spilt over the surrounding pavement [...] – The Times , October 9, 1892 The Woman's Christian Temperance Union also commissioned fountains. The local membership of
1560-495: A virus commonly known to cause diarrhea in young children, known as the rotavirus, has been found on drinking fountains in child day care facilities. Due to cases in the past where children have fallen ill due to coliform bacteria poisoning, many governments have placed strict regulations on drinking fountain designs. The vertical spout design is now illegal in most US jurisdictions. Some governments even require water spouts to be as long as four inches to meet health standards. It
1664-474: Is 10003. It is patrolled by the 13th Precinct of the New York City Police Department . The New York City Subway 's 14th Street–Union Square station , served by the 4 , 5 , 6 , <6> , L , N , Q , R , and W trains, is located under Union Square. Prior to the area's settlement,
1768-565: Is a melancholy monument to a once-thriving commercial district." In 1982, a $ 1.5 million refurbishment of Union Square Park was announced. At the time, the park was frequented by drug users because of its tall hedges, and many of the benches, lights, and statues had been vandalized. The first phase of the renovation, which cost $ 3.6 million, was completed in May 1985. The renovations included removing hedges, increasing lighting, and erecting new subway entrances. The renovation of Union Square, along with
1872-452: Is also recommended for young children to allow drinking fountains to run before drinking, as the water may also be contaminated with lead . This is especially common in older buildings with obsolete plumbing . In the 1970s, this fear of contamination in tap water was hyped by producers of bottled water , thereby changing attitudes to publicly provided water in drinking fountains, which began to disappear from city streets. The term bubbler
1976-471: Is another type of old drinking fountain found in Nepal. This is a stone container that can be filled with water and has a tap that can be opened and closed. The oldest of these is dated 530 AD. Very few jahrus are in use today, but the remnants can be found in many places. In mid-19th century London , when water provision from private water companies was generally inadequate for the rapidly growing population and
2080-516: Is sometimes used in the Portland, Oregon , region where in the early 1900s former Wisconsin resident Simon Benson installed 20 fountains, which are now known in the Portland area as " Benson Bubblers ". Currently, there are 52 of these iconic four-bowl drinking fountains still providing free-flowing water in downtown Portland. Frost-resistant drinking fountains are used outdoors in cold climates and keep
2184-404: Is the site of a regular hip-hop freestyle rap cypher called Legendary Cyphers since 2012. The events draw residents from across the city and tourists and encourage participation in freestyle hip-hop. Notable local hip-hop artists such as Joey Bada$ $ have attended in the past. The Union Square Partnership (USP), a business improvement district (BID) and a local development corporation (LDC),
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#17330848545322288-529: Is used in some regional dialects of the United States and in Australia . A survey of US dialects undertaken between 2002 and 2004 found the word bubbler is commonly used in southern and eastern Wisconsin and in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The phrase drinking fountain was common in the rest of the inland north and in the west, while water fountain dominated other parts of the country. The term bubbler
2392-577: The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company 's Broadway Line , under the park in 1913. The station was built using an open cut method, and a 120-foot-wide (37 m) strip of land, running diagonally through Union Square Park, was closed and excavated. By late 1913, large portions of Union Square Park had been demolished as part of the construction of the Broadway Line's Union Square station. New York City's parks commissioner promised members of
2496-604: The George Floyd protests in New York City in 2020. The Square's shopping district saw strikes in the S. Klein and Ohrbach department stores in 1934. White collar workers were among the worst paid in Great Depression -era New York City, with union memberships being highly discouraged by store managers and often seen as fireable offenses. These strikes often involved acts of disobedience by the workers as many of them did not want to lose their jobs. This period saw Union Square as
2600-551: The Germania Life Insurance Company Building , erected at the northeast corner of the same intersection in 1910–1911; and the Consolidated Edison Building , constructed three blocks south at 14th Street between 1910 and 1914. Existing houses were also converted into stores, including a pair of merchants' houses on the east side of the park at 16th Street in 1916. During this era, many of
2704-482: The Hyatt Union Square New York hotel is located at the park's southeast corner, in a former post office. The park has historically been the start or the end point for many political demonstrations. Although the park was known for its labor union rallies and for the large 1861 gathering in support of Union troops, it was actually named for its location at the "union" of Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and
2808-521: The New York City Subway 's 14th Street–Union Square station having opened in 1904. With the northward relocation of the theater district, Union Square also became a major wholesaling district with several loft buildings, as well as numerous office buildings. The office structures included the Everett Building , erected at the northwest corner of Park Avenue South and 17th Street in 1908;
2912-538: The Schuylkill River to Centre Square, now the site of Philadelphia City Hall . There, twin steam pumps propelled the water into a tank in the tower of the pumping house, from which gravity distributed it throughout the city via wooden water mains (cored logs). Completed in January 1801, this was the first citywide gravity-fed public water system in the United States. Latrobe's chief draftsman, Frederick Graff , designed
3016-505: The Sons of Temperance funded a drinking fountain, originally installed under a pergola at the 1876 Centennial Exposition and later moved to Independence Square in 1877. As advertised, it provided ICE WATER FREE TO ALL. Also for the 1876 exposition the German-American sculptor Herman Kirn produced the elaborate Catholic Total Abstinence Union Fountain . This included five figures, Moses in
3120-566: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union saw free, clean water as a crucial alternative to beer. Emerging animal welfare organizations, notably the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , wanted to provide water to the dogs and working horses of the city on humanitarian grounds, which is why Philadelphia's drinking fountains of the era often include curb-level troughs that animals could reach. Philadelphia suffered multiple yellow fever epidemics in
3224-468: The temperance movement ; the same association in London drew 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
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3328-654: The 1790s. The Philadelphia Watering Committee, formally the Joint Committee on Bringing Water to the City, was founded in 1797–98 with the mission of constructing a public water system to combat the disease. Scottish-born architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe , famous for being the architect of the United States Capitol building , designed the Philadelphia system in which an underground brick aqueduct carried drinking water from
3432-460: The 1920s, with "burlesque houses, shooting galleries, and shoddy businesses" lining the square. Throughout the decade, most buildings on the eastern part of the square were purchased by department stores S. Klein and Ohrbach's . Real estate activity resumed in the late 1920s, and according to a 1928 piece in The New York Times , “several smaller operations are planned or are under way in
3536-554: The 1940s. Many remain. In 2015, Philly Voice reported on plans to re-establish a system of public drinking fountains in the city. The earliest and most prolific fountain-building organization was the Philadelphia Fountain Society, headed by medical doctor and art collector Wilson Cary Swann (1806–1876) and formally incorporated on April 21, 1869, with the stated mission of developing water fountains and water troughs for Philadelphia . "[O]ur object", wrote Swann, "is
3640-574: The Environment of New York City (now GrowNYC) established the Greenmarket program, which provided regional small-family farmers with opportunities to sell their fruits, vegetables and other farm products at open-air markets in the city. There were originally seven farmers at the first Greenmarket, and their selection sold out by noon. That summer, two more markets opened in New York City. Despite some backlash from local merchants and supermarkets who believed
3744-536: The Everett House hotel facing the north side of the square, for the capitol of the government-in-exile they declared. On September 5, 1882, in the first Labor Day celebration, a crowd of at least 10,000 workers paraded up Broadway and filed past the reviewing stand at Union Square. On March 28, 1908, an anarchist set off a bomb in Union Square which only killed himself and another man. In 1893, Emma Goldman took
3848-589: The Fountain Society with twelve in operation so far, and the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) credited with five, all fountains which had "proven their utility and absolute necessity" with more to come. Some of these featured a curb-level trough for small animals, and a separate drinking fountain for people. By 1869, the activist Caroline Earle White had grown frustrated with her exclusion from any decision-making role in
3952-612: The Greenmarket was cutting into their profits, more markets opened in the city. Today, the Union Square Greenmarket, the best known of the markets, is held year-round on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between 8 am and 6 pm. The market is served by a number of regional farmers, as the average distance between farmers and the market is 90 miles (140 km). During peak seasons, the Greenmarket serves more than 250,000 customers per week, who purchase more than one thousand varieties of fruits and vegetables can be found at
4056-589: The Greenmarket; and the variety of produce available is much broader than what is found in a conventional supermarket. Union Square hosts the Union Square Holiday Market every November and December, in which more than 150 vendors sell handcrafts. Around two million people visit the Holiday Market annually. Starting in 2024, UrbanSpace also hosted the Night Market food market in Union Square during
4160-527: The James Fountain, 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 . The Charles F. Murphy Memorial Flagpole, also known as the Independence Flagstaff , was cast in 1926 and dedicated in 1930 to mark the 150th anniversary of U.S. independence. It is located in the center of
4264-690: The Manhattan Bank, which supposedly was a "refuge" for businesses during New York City's yellow fever epidemics. When John Randel was surveying the island in preparation for the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 , the Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway ) angled away from the Bowery at an acute angle. Because it would have been difficult to develop buildings upon this angle, the Commissioners decided to form
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4368-633: The PSPCA in 1899, founding the independent Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or WPSPCA. The WPSPCA became co-publisher of Journal of Zoöphily , which promoted its good works. White was assisted by the efforts and financial support of the WPSPCA's vice-president, Annie L. Lowry, the childless widow of a successful Philadelphia lawyer. Lowry sponsored horse fountains at Walnut & Dock Streets and 8th & Porter Streets, and more were erected in her memory. Lowry made $ 58,000 in bequests to
4472-485: The PSPCA, which she had helped to found. She created a Women's Branch, essentially an auxiliary, which also independently commissioned the construction of public drinking fountains and horse troughs. White founded the American Anti-Vivisection Society in Philadelphia in 1883. She created its monthly magazine, Journal of Zoöphily , in 1892, and worked as editor for 25 years. White fully broke away from
4576-594: The Philadelphia Fountain Society beginning in April 1869. New fountains in Philadelphia proved immediately successful. They quickly proved their "utility and absolute necessity;" by September 1869 the Fountain Society had constructed 12, and the Pennsylvania branch of the ASPCA (PSPCA) had built another 5. As of 1880, the Philadelphia Fountain Society recorded 50 fountains serving approximately 3 million people and 1 million horses and other animals. Reformers continued installing such fountains throughout Philadelphia into
4680-586: The Union Square Rialto was the Academy of Music , which opened at Irving Place in 1854. The theater district gradually relocated northward, into less expensive and undeveloped uptown neighborhoods, and eventually into the current Theater District . Before the Civil War , theatres in New York City were primarily located along Broadway and the Bowery up to 14th Street , with those on Broadway appealing more to
4784-502: 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, as a means to discourage people from drinking in saloons. They sponsored temperance fountains in towns and cities across the United States. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , founded in 1866, expressed concern about
4888-400: The WPSPCA in her 1908 will, including $ 10,000 "for erecting fountains in Philadelphia for horses and smaller animals," and $ 20,000 to establish the first animal shelter in the United States. A crusade is being conducted in Philadelphia, and has been for six years past, by the members of the Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1906, Mrs. Bradbury Bedell,
4992-451: The air, and the excess water ran back down over the sides of the nozzle. During World War I, company founder Halsey W. Taylor invented the "Double Bubbler" drinking fountain. This fountain dispensed two streams of water in an arc. Several years later the Bubbler adopted this more sanitary arc projection, which also allowed the user to drink more easily from it. At the start of the 20th century, it
5096-410: The area around present-day Union Square was farmland. The western part of the site was owned by Elias Brevoort, who later sold his land to John Smith in 1762; by 1788 it had been sold again to Henry Spingler (or Springler). On the eastern part of the land were farms owned by John Watts and Cornelius Williams . The northwestern corner of the park site contained 1 acre (0.40 ha) of land owned by
5200-467: The area by making 14th Street the southern boundary. In 1831, at a time when the city was quickly expanding and the surrounding area was still sparsely developed, Samuel Ruggles , one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce and the developer of Gramercy Park to the northeast, convinced the city to rename the area "Union Square". In doing so, Ruggles also got the city to enlarge the commons to 17th Street on
5304-519: The century several big-box chain stores established a presence, including Barnes & Noble in the Century Building , Babies "R" Us in the former United States Communist Party headquarters, and Staples in the Spingler Building . The W New York Union Square , part of the W Hotels chain, is located at the park's northeast corner, in the former Guardian Life building. Additionally,
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#17330848545325408-570: The city from renovating the pavilion. In early 2009, a judge dismissed the lawsuit against the renovation, allowing a seasonal restaurant in the pavilion. CMS Architecture and Design was hired in 2011 to design the restaurant in the pavilion. The Pavilion restaurant opened in Union Square Park in May 2014, following years of disputes. In 2021, the Union Square Partnership proposed spending $ 100 million to overhaul Union Square. The plan entailed closing off adjacent streets to increase
5512-513: The city would help "workers quench their thirst in public instead of entering local taverns". Some of Swann's arguments may have been derived from the like-minded London Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association , established in 1859. The fountains themselves were intended to be more functional than decorative, although many of them incorporate work by significant architects and sculptors. The society reached out to Philadelphians, advertising $ 5 for an annual membership, or $ 150 for
5616-526: The construction of a fountain in his memory. By 1910, the number of horses in Philadelphia was decreasing as automobiles and streetcars gained in popularity, decreasing the need for fountains. After the completion of its last grand project, the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Circle in 1924, the society ceased building fountains. At its peak, the society had managed 82 fountains. It still exists as
5720-471: The construction of the Zeckendorf Towers, caused real-estate values in the area to increase. By 1987, there were plans to close off two blocks of the little-used Union Square West to make way for an expansion of the park. This plan was not carried out at the time due to a lack of funds. When the idea of closing Union Square West was again proposed in 1996, local business owners opposed the proposal because
5824-500: The construction of water conduits like dhunge dharas , dug wells and tutedharas is considered a pious act. This applies to kings and other dignitaries as well as to ordinary citizens. Union Square, Manhattan Union Square is a historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Manhattan , New York City, United States, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in
5928-586: The continuation of Broadway on the park's south side. The park is maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation . Adjacent neighborhoods are the Flatiron District to the north, Chelsea to the west, Greenwich Village to the southwest, East Village to the southeast, and Gramercy Park to the east. Many buildings of The New School are near the square, as are several dormitories of New York University . The eastern side of
6032-458: The control mechanisms below the frostline resulting in a delay for when water comes out. Most drinking fountains are freely available, however there are exceptions. Many private individuals in Armenia install pulpulaks (Armenian name for drinking fountain) in their yards or neighborhoods for various reasons, which include honoring dead relatives/friends or giving back to the community. In Nepal,
6136-415: The danger. The city authorities have cheerfully aided the Women's Society here by furnishing the supply of water free for all the stations and in other ways. Many heads of stores and establishments which have a large supply of horses have also responded to the society's efforts on behalf of the horse. They know what it means from a commercial as well as a humane standpoint. As of 1928 the WPSPCA still ran
6240-401: The difficulty of finding fresh water for work horses in urban areas. Combined drinking fountains with a bubbler for people, a water trough for horses and sometimes a lower basin for dogs, became popular. In particular, over 120 National Humane Alliance fountains were donated to communities across the United States between 1903 and 1913. The original 'Bubbler' shot water one inch straight into
6344-465: The early 19th century. Its name denotes that "here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island". The current Union Square Park is bounded by 14th Street on the south, 17th Street on the north, and Union Square West and Union Square East to the west and east respectively. 17th Street links together Broadway and Park Avenue South on the north end of the park, while Union Square East connects Park Avenue South to Fourth Avenue and
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#17330848545326448-459: The efforts of Charles Pierre Melly , and that city had 43 in total by 1858. The first in London was a granite basin attached to the gates of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate , funded by Samuel Gurney and his Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association in 1859. A spring-fed public drinking fountain was erected in 1854, along the Wissahickon Creek opposite Chestnut Hill . It
6552-456: The end of the century, a thriving theatrical neighborhood, which would soon nonetheless migrate uptown to what became known as " Broadway " as the Rialto became subsumed into the more vice-oriented Tenderloin entertainment district. By the first decade of the 20th century, Union Square had grown into a major transportation hub with several elevated and surface railroad lines running nearby, and
6656-462: The erection and maintenance in this city of public drinking fountains for the health and refreshment of the people of Philadelphia and the benefit of dumb animals". The society hoped that water fountains would directly improve quality-of-life for workers and working animals in the city, and indirectly promote temperance; Swann felt that "the lack of water for workers and animals led to intemperance and crime", and that drinking fountains positioned around
6760-639: The former Bowery Road decades before these gatherings. On April 20, 1861, soon after the fall of Fort Sumter , Major Robert Anderson , who was the commander of Fort Sumter brought the Fort Sumter Flag that flew at the fort to the park. The flag was flown from the George Washington statue, gathering patriotic rally of perhaps a quarter of a million people that is thought to have been the largest public gathering in North America up to that time. The flag
6864-410: The fountains, and it is no uncommon thing for a fountain to be entirely knocked over by the pole of a brewery wagon ... the majority of the fountains ... erected now-a-days, are built low down, below the range of a wagon pole. Swann died in 1876. By 1892, the number of fountains managed by the society had declined to 60. That year, Swann's wife died and left $ 80,000 to the society, as well as $ 25,000 for
6968-689: The latter had more foot traffic. Street chess players play fast chess with passers-by for three to five dollars a game, with time controls of five minutes on each side being the most common. Writer Lauren Snetiker at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation also documents this migration of the historical Washington Square Park chess scene to Union Square, noting the "dozens of chess players [who] sit on crates and bring their own boards... as there are no permanent ones like there are in Washington Square Park". Union Square
7072-519: The middle and upper classes and the Bowery theatres attracting immigrant audiences, clerks and the working class. After the war, the development of the Ladies' Mile shopping district along Fifth and Sixth Avenues above 14th Street had the effect of pulling the playhouses uptown, so that a "Rialto" theatrical strip came about on Broadway between 14th and 23rd Streets, between Union Square and Madison Square . At
7176-634: The middle, and sixteen drinking fountains installed into granite pedestals. Some entries in this table overlap the entries in Drinking fountains in the United States . Neither table is an exhaustive list. "HORSE TROUGH. Presented by Clarence S. Kates. Accepted by the Commissioners of Fairmount Park, December 15th, 1878, and placed on the Wissahickon Drive, near the site of the Old Log Cabin." Drinking fountain A drinking fountain , also called
7280-444: The money from an inheritance to fund the construction of 50 drinking fountains (ever after known as ‘ Wallace fountains ’). Designed by Charles-Auguste Lebourg with four caryatids atop a green cylindrical base, these fountains have become iconic symbols of Paris. Muddied and bad tasting drinking water encouraged many Americans to drink alcohol for health purposes, so temperance groups constructed public drinking fountains throughout
7384-427: The neighborhood". By then, at least eight banks had opened locations on the western and eastern sides of the park. City officials announced in 1910 that they would install a firefighters' memorial near the northern end of the park. The same year, there was a failed proposal to construct a courthouse within the park. As part of the Dual Contracts , workers began constructing the 14th Street–Union Square station , on
7488-487: The neighborhood's largest retailers, such as Ohrbach's and Hearn's, had relocated by the 1950s, and the area began to decline. One of the last major retailers on Union Square, S. Klein , closed in 1975. The S. Klein site remained vacant until 1983, when William Zeckendorf leased the site for the Zeckendorf Towers development. The New York Times wrote at the time, "The former S. Klein store, boarded up since 1975,
7592-404: The new theatres. The new system also needed an organized way to engage actors for these one-off productions, so talent brokers and theatrical agents sprang up, as did theatrical boardinghouses, stage photographers, publicity agencies, theatrical printers and play publishers. Along with the hotels and restaurants which serviced the theatregoers and shoppers of the area, the Union Square Rialto was, by
7696-448: The north and extend the axis of University Place to form the square's west side, thus turning the common from a triangular to a rectangular area. By 1832, the area had been renamed Union Square. Ruggles obtained a fifty-year lease on most of the surrounding lots from 15th to 19th Streets, where he built sidewalks and curbs. In 1834, he convinced the Board of Aldermen to enclose and grade
7800-440: The older homes on Union Square were converted into tenements for immigrants and industrial workers. Numerous artists relocated into the attics of the remaining mansions along 14th Street, where they had their studios. The 1939 WPA Guide to New York City said that by the 1920s, the "south side of Fourteenth Street became virtually an ex-tension of Greenwich Village ". Further, real estate values around Union Square had declined by
7904-409: The park had become extremely popular, causing vehicular traffic in the neighborhood to increase significantly. Union Square was named a National Historic Landmark in 1997, primarily to honor it as the site of the first Labor Day parade. Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced plans in early 1998 to spend $ 2.6 million on expanding the park, following advocacy from area residents. The expansion consisted of
8008-427: The park was delayed by the construction of the subway mezzanine below it. The park's renovation was nearly completed by mid-1931; the last construction contract, for the bandstand, was awarded that August. After building the bandstand, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation could not afford to landscape the park. As a result, civic groups started landscaping the park for free in June 1932. Most of
8112-466: The park's size by 33%, as well as adding benches and lighting, improving restrooms, and refurbishing a dog run in the park itself. There are several notable buildings surrounding Union Square. Clockwise from southwest, they are: In addition, the Consolidated Edison Building is located one block east of the Zeckendorf Towers. The Century Association clubhouse is located on 15th Street between Irving Place and Union Square East. Union Square contains
8216-554: The park. In October 2023, an outdoor version of the sculpture N.Y.C. Legend by the Swedish artist Alexander Klingspor , featuring a New York sewer alligator , was unveiled in the square by Queen Silvia of Sweden . A double line of trees is planted along 17th Street, and a corresponding plaque installed nearby, as a monument to victims of the Armenian genocide . In 1976, the Council on
8320-552: The park. A group of sculptors approved his proposal the same month. In 1927, the Municipal Art Society approved plans for a renovation of the park, which was to include a covered parking area at the north end of the park. To make way for a further expansion of the Union Square subway station, the park was raised by about 3 feet (0.91 m) as part of a renovation during the late 1920s. The plans, announced in June 1929, also included relocating several statues and building
8424-412: The public that the park would be remodeled after the station was finished. The station had been completed by early 1916, and workers began restoring the section of Union Square Park above the 14th Street station. The city's park commissioner Francis D. Gallatin proposed relocating the park's Washington , Lincoln , and Lafayette statues in 1922 to bring the Washington statue closer to the center of
8528-435: The purpose by Henry G. Marquand at the corner of 17th Street and Broadway. After the Civil War the neighborhood became largely commercial, and the square began to lose social cachet at the turn of the twentieth century, with many of the old mansions being demolished. Tiffany & Co. , which had moved to the square from Broadway and Broome Street in 1870, left its premises on 15th Street to move uptown to 37th Street in 1905;
8632-416: The same time, a transition from stock companies, in which a resident acting company was based around a star or impresario, to a "combination" system, in which productions were put together on a one-time basis to mount a specific play, expanded the amount of outside support needed to service the theatrical industry. Thus, suppliers of props, costumes, wigs, scenery, and other theatrical necessities grew up around
8736-458: The silversmiths Gorham Company moved up from 19th Street in 1906. The last of the neighborhood's free-standing private mansions, Peter Goelet's at the northeast corner of 19th Street, made way for a commercial building in 1897. The Rialto, New York City's first commercial theater district, was located in and around Union Square beginning in the 1870s. It was named after Venice 's Rialto , a commercial district. The first facility to open within
8840-426: The society removed them by 1884. Swann handled a large portion of the society's work, and by 1874 it had erected 73 fountains. On April 17, 1874, Adelaide Neilson performed a concert to benefit the society at the Academy of Music . The society had challenges. While rapidly constructing new fountains, it struggled to fund ongoing maintenance. In the 1870s, the city budgeted some money for upkeep, but that practice
8944-399: The society, and by July there were five operational fountains. Two years later, forty three fountains were managed by the society. The society installed three fountains on Rittenhouse Square , the first outside the iron fence at the square's northwest corner; the others within the iron fence at its northeast and southeast corners. Persistent flooding around the fountains created a nuisance, and
9048-453: The square is dominated by the four Zeckendorf Towers , and the south side by the full-square-block mixed-use One Union Square South, which contains a wall sculpture and digital clock titled Metronome . Union Square Park also contains an assortment of art, including statues of George Washington , Marquis de Lafayette , Abraham Lincoln , and Mahatma Gandhi . Union Square is part of Manhattan Community District 5 and its primary ZIP Code
9152-605: The square, then sold most of his leases and in 1839 built a four-story house facing the east side of the Square. The park at Union Square was completed and opened in July 1839. A fountain was built in the center of Union Square to receive water from the Croton Aqueduct , completed in October 1842. In 1845, as the square finally began to fill with affluent houses, $ 116,000 was spent in paving
9256-555: The stage at Union Square to make her "Free Bread" speech to a crowd of overworked garment workers. She also addressed a crowd in 1916 on the need for free access to birth control, which was banned by the Comstock laws . Her visits to Union Square pulled hundreds of followers; some of these rallies resulted in her arrest. Union Square has been used as a platform to raise awareness about the Black Lives Matter movement, such as during
9360-485: The summer. Union Square is a popular meeting place, given its central location in Manhattan and its many nearby subway routes. There are many bars and restaurants on the periphery of the square, and the surrounding streets have some of the city's most renowned (and expensive) restaurants. S. Klein's department store promoted itself in the mid-20th century as an "On the Square" alternative to higher prices uptown, and late in
9464-422: The surrounding streets and planting the square, in part owing to the continued encouragement of Ruggles. The sole survivors of this early phase, though they have been much adapted and rebuilt, are a series of three- and four-story brick rowhouses, 862–866 Broadway, at the turn where Broadway exits the square at 17th Street. The Everett House on the corner of 17th Street and Fourth Avenue (built 1848, demolished 1908)
9568-869: The wall), and to include an additional unit of a lower height for children and short adults. The design that this replaced often had one spout atop a refrigeration unit. Before potable water was provided in private homes, water for drinking was made available to citizens of cities through access to public fountains. Many of these early public drinking fountains can still be seen (and used) in cities such as Rome, with its many fontanelle and nasoni (big noses). In Nepal there were public drinking fountains at least as early as 550 AD. They are called dhunge dharas or hitis . They consist of carved stone spouts through which water flows uninterrupted from underground sources. They are found extensively in Nepal and some of them are still operational. Many people of Nepal rely on them for their daily water supply. The tutedhara or jahru
9672-620: 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 . After many of the aqueducts were destroyed after the siege of Paris in the 1870s, the Parisian poor had no access to fresh water. Richard Wallace, an Englishman, used
9776-461: The women's appeals were passed by unnoticed. Then the thought came to them that the society could in time establish sufficient stations to crush out the horse trough evil, and the campaign was started. In six years the results have been even more than the originators had anticipated. To-day the society owns forty fountains and troughs throughout the city. Conditions at many other fountains have been greatly improved, and horse owners have been aroused to
9880-486: Was built on Holborn Hill on the railings of the church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate on Snow Hill, paid for by Samuel Gurney, and opened on 21 April 1859. The fountain became immediately popular, and was used by 7,000 people a day. In the next six years 85 fountains were built, with much of the funding coming directly from the association. The provision of drinking fountains in the United Kingdom soon became linked to
9984-533: Was described in 1884 as: The first fountain, so called, stands upon the side of the road on the west side of the Wissahickon ... It is claimed that this is the first drinking fountain erected in the county of Philadelphia outside of the Fairmount Water-Works. A clear, cold, mountain spring is carried by a spout, covered with a lion's head, from a niche in a granite front, with pilasters and pediment into
10088-642: Was discovered that the original vertical design was related to the spread of contagious diseases . In the United States, segregation of public facilities including but not limited to water fountains due to race, color, religion, or national origin was abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . Prior to this, racially segregated water fountains with those for black people in worse condition than those for white people were common. In recent studies, it has been found that some drinking fountains have been contaminated with pathogens such as bacteria . In one study,
10192-557: Was ended by 1880. The city was hard on its drinking fountains. That first fountain at 7th and Walnut, which was "at all times surrounded by a thirsty crowd" as of 1896, had its iron eagle "blown over" to land on a boy and break his arm, resulting in civil damages, then its fortified replacement eagle was squarely broken off by a tree branch. The destruction of fountains by boys and men with vandalistic tendencies, has to be constantly watched for and guarded against. Truck drivers and dragmen with heavy wagons also, by their carelessness, damage
10296-476: Was for decades one of the city's most fashionable hotels. In the early years of the park, a fence surrounded the square's central oval planted with radiating walks lined with trees. In 1872, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were called in to replant the park, as an open glade with clumps of trees. Initially, the square was largely residential: the Union League Club first occupied a house loaned for
10400-446: Was formed in 1984 and became a model for other BIDs in New York City. Jennifer E. Falk became its executive director in January 2007. The Union Square Partnership provides a free public Wi-Fi network in Union Square. The Washington Irving Campus at 40 Irving Place between East 16th and 17th Streets, a block east of Union Square Park, was formerly the location of a comprehensive high school, but now houses Gramercy Arts High School,
10504-402: Was modeled by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated in 1876, the 100th anniversary of U.S. independence. The statue of Abraham Lincoln , modeled by Henry Kirke Brown (1870), is located near the north end of the park. A statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the southwest corner of the park was added in 1986. The Union Square Drinking Fountain (1881) near Union Square West, also known as
10608-610: Was often contaminated, a new law created the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers , made water filtration compulsory, and moved water intakes on the Thames above the sewage outlets. In this context, the public drinking fountain movement began. It built the first public baths and public drinking fountains. In 1859 the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association was established. The first fountain
10712-478: Was restricted in Lower Manhattan below 14th Street. In March 2008, an eighteen-month renovation began on the northern end of the park. The renovation was controversial because of disagreements over whether to place a restaurant in the pavilion at the north end of the park. A New York Supreme Court judge approved the renovation of the park's north end in April 2008 but placed an injunction temporarily banning
10816-543: Was shortly removed after to be used as a patriotic fundraiser by being auctioned across the country repeatedly. In the summer of 1864 the north side of the square was the site of the Metropolitan Fair . Union Square has been a frequent gathering point for radicals of all stripes to make speeches or demonstrate. In 1865, the recently formed Irish republican Fenian Brotherhood came out publicly and rented Dr. John Moffat's brownstone rowhouse at 32 East 17th Street, next to
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