The Ornamental Movement of Water in City Streets 
well be nearer 
at hand. The 
barrenness and 
harshness of the 
present sur¬ 
roundings of the 
park entrance 
speak for them¬ 
selves. That 
long expanse of 
wall fairly craves 
ornament to re¬ 
lieve its monot¬ 
ony. Why not 
beautify it by a 
treatment akin 
to that in the 
Piazza del 
Popolo, in the 
western quarter 
of Rome? The sculpture could be omitted if 
found too costly. 
At no site in the United States would a 
large wall fountain appeal to a greater num¬ 
ber of people, or do more toward arousing 
in visitors from other cities an interest in 
such municipal undertakings, than if placed 
against what is now the facade of the build¬ 
ing behind the Worth Monument, on the 
west side of Madison Square, New York. 
This location for a monumental wall foun¬ 
tain was suggested years ago by Russell 
Sturgis, as told in a previous paper. He 
then estimated the cost of the undertaking 
at about $100,000, and compared its proba¬ 
ble effect to that of the well-known fountain 
of Saint Michel, Paris. Now that property 
has reached a fabulous valuation, there is no 
likelihood of this scheme being carried out. 
Yet the accompanying illustration will doubt¬ 
less force a sigh from the impartial reader, 
that so noteworthy a chance should have 
been allowed to pass. The scheme was to 
set back what is now the front wall of the 
house facing south along Twenty-fifth Street, 
between Broadway on the west and Fifth 
Avenue on the east. Against this wall would 
have been built a fountain, whose waters 
would have been a living factor in the long 
vista from Broadway or Fifth Avenue below 
Twenty-third Street, as well as from the 
park itself. This must be placed in the 
category of things that might have been. 
Another apocry¬ 
phal suggestion 
involves the wall 
of the old reser¬ 
voir, along Fifth 
Avenue, fro m 
Fortieth to 
Forty -second 
Streets. T h i s 
has now been 
torn down, to 
make way for 
the New York 
Public Library, 
but what an ideal 
backing it would 
have furnished 
for a fountain or 
a system of water 
decorations! 
An original suggestion for a wall fountain 
comes from a Cleveland architect, Mr. Albert 
E. Skeel, who cites the spaces between the 
buttresses of the handsome stone abutments 
to the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern 
Railway bridge over the Detroit Street 
entrance to F'.dgewater Park, in his city. As 
the illustration shows, the corners of the 
abutments are cut off at an angle of forty- 
five degrees, leaving a wall space between 
each pair of the smaller buttresses, on either 
side of the roadway, against which fountains 
might be built. These would be of practical 
use, aside from their decorative value, for 
thirsty crowds entering or leaving the park. 
Although erected in a hotel park at Tampa, 
Florida, the Henry B. Plant Memorial, given 
by the employes of the transportation sys¬ 
tem with which Mr. Plant was identified, is, 
for the purposes of this discussion, a wall 
fountain, not meant to be viewed from the 
rear. Its position before the hotel piazza, 
with a dense background of trees, is akin to 
that of a fountain built against a wall; it 
would serve excellently for a site in front of 
a building. Aside from the vitality and 
beauty of the sculptured figures, which, with 
all their massiveness, are yet instinct with 
passionate life, the effective treatment of the 
water must be noted. The streams issuing 
from the fish mouths are veritable lines of 
composition, and they give breadth and reach 
to the design. T his fountain, in which the 
RESERVOIR WALL, PHILADELPHIA 
At the Green Street Entrance to Fairmount Park 
420 
