Pulitzer Fountain
| Pulitzer Fountain | |
|---|---|
_-_2.JPG) The fountain and sculpture in 2014 | |
  Pulitzer Fountain Location in New York City | |
| Artist | Karl Bitter, Thomas Hastings |
| Year | 1916 |
| Type |
|
| Medium |
|
| Subject | Pomona |
| Dimensions | 6.7 m (22 ft) |
| Location | New York City, New York, United States |
| 40°45′51″N 73°58′25″W / 40.76403°N 73.97361°W | |
Pulitzer Fountain is an outdoor fountain located in Manhattan's Grand Army Plaza in New York. The fountain is named after newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer who died in 1911 having bequeathed $50,000 for the creation of the fountain, intending it to complement the nearby William Tecumseh Sherman monument. The fountain was designed by the architect Thomas Hastings, and crowned by a statue conceived by the sculptor Karl Bitter. [1] The fountain was dedicated in May 1916.
An allegorical bronze statue Pomona, depicting the goddess of abundance holding a basket of fruit, modeled by Doris Doscher, sits at the top of the fountain. Bitter died on April 9, 1915, having just completed the plaster cast of the figure.[2] while working on Pomona, so it was completed by his assistant Karl Gruppe and Isidore Konti.[3]
Funds to restore the fountain were provided in 1936 by the prominent architect and historic preservationist Dan Everett Waid.[4]
Initial design and construction
In December 1912, the executors of the estate of Joseph Pulitzer (who had left $50,000 in his will for construction of the fountain) announced that New York City had approved its proposed location, in the plaza between 58th Street and 60th Street, just east of Fifth Avenue, the same plaza where the equestrian Sherman Monument had stood since 1903. The executors invited five architecture firms to participate in a competition to determine the fountain's design, and to provide designs for a "good architectural treatment of the whole plaza." [5] In January 1913, the five schemes were exhibited at the New York Public Library, including the winning scheme, designed by Carrère and Hastings. Architect Thomas Hasting's design placed the fountain in the southern half of the plaza, whereas the Sherman Monument remained in the northern half (but moved fifteen feet west to be symmetrically opposite the fountain). Hasting's design for the fountain included a "symbolical figure-the exact symbolism not yet having been decided upon."[6]
Construction began in 1915, and by November one newspaper reported: "The Pulitzer Fountain...is now finished and bubbling with the purest Croton water," noting that work on the northern portion of the plaza was delayed by subway construction.[7] The bronze statue "Abundance" that crowns the fountain was installed on (or about) May 1, 1916, "with little or no ceremony."[8]
References
- ^ Ferdinand Schevill, Karl Bitter, a Biography (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1917), pages 65-67.
- ^ Ferdinand Schevill, Karl Bitter, a Biography (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1917), pages 65-67
- ^ "Grand Army Plaza: Pulitzer Fountain". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
- ^ "Grand Army Plaza Monuments - Pulitzer Fountain : NYC Parks". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. www.nycgovparks.org. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
- ^ The New York Times, December 22, 1912.
- ^ The New York Times, January 21, 1913.
- ^ Chicago Daily Tribune, November 7, 1915.
- ^ Philadelphia Inquirer, August 13, 1916, page 23.
External links
Media related to Pulitzer Fountain at Wikimedia Commons
