Fabulous Fountains of New York<\/a>\u201d (Empire State Editions, out Sept. 2), is devoted to the beautiful landmarks that dot the city and gets at the surprising, sometimes sordid tales behind several of them.<\/p>\nA new book highlights dozens of fountains across the city.<\/p>\n
She notes that while some were designed to provide water for horses, others aimed to deter NYC\u2019s human inhabitants from imbibing too much alcohol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city created them with the hopes they would drink water instead,\u201d launghed Azzarone, who produced the book with her photographer husband, Robert F. Rodriguez, 72. <\/p>\n
The couple have called the Upper West Side home for more than 40 years and love exploring its history and, yes, its aquatic elements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more pleasurable and meditative than looking at water jetting out of a fountain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Here, she shares the captivating stories behind five fountains;<\/p>\n
Robert Ray Hamilton Fountain, Riverside Park at 76th Street<\/p>\n
Many of the fountains, like this one named after Robert Ray Hamilton, have scandals behind them. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez<\/p>\n
Robert Ray Hamilton, the great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton and a New York State Assembly Member, put up the money for this fountain, but construction was delayed for years because of a Gilded Age scandal that tarnished his name.<\/p>\n
He had an ongoing brothel dalliance with Evangeline Steele, and she falsely claimed he\u2019d gotten her pregnant to force him into marriage.<\/p>\n
Hamilton was tricked into marriage by Evangeline Steele, a woman of ill repute he regularly visited in a brothel. <\/p>\n
A few months before their wedding, she visited her mother in upstate New York for months and returned with a baby that she\u2019d bought off the black market, claiming the tot was theirs. <\/p>\n
Hamilton eventually tired of his wife\u2019s shenanigans and asked for a divorce. In a fit of rage, she stabbed the nurse they\u2019d hired to care for their kid and was promptly arrested. <\/p>\n
A disgraced Hamilton fled to Wyoming, where, less than a year later, in 1890, he drowned in the Snake River and died. His graceful fountain, which is topped with a beautiful eagle, was finally completed in 1906. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of my favorites in the city,\u201d Azzarone said. \u201cI love the scandalous story behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fireman\u2019s Memorial, Riverside Park and 100th Street<\/p>\n
The Firemen\u2019s Memorial honors firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez<\/p>\n
Audrey Munson, known as \u201cAmerican Venus,\u201d was the model for several statues in her day. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Her likeness flanks the Firemen\u2019s Memorial. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez<\/p>\n
This striking rectangular monument with a bronze plaque of horses, was constructed in 1913 to honor the firefighters who lost their lives on the job. But, Azzarone shared that the model for its figures, Audrey Munson, has a more illustrious story.<\/p>\n
Known as the \u201cAmerican Venus,\u201d she was \u201cthe supermodel of her day\u201d and \u201cposed for at least 15 different monuments around the city.\u201d But, her life met an ugly ending. The owner of the boarding house where she lived, Dr. Walter Wilkins, murdered his wife so that he could be with Audrey. At age 40, she was committed to a psychiatric institution, where she lived until her death at age 104. <\/p>\n
Bethesda Fountain, Central Park at 72nd Street:<\/p>\n
Bethesda Fountain in Central Park is one of the city\u2019s most recognizable fountains Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez<\/p>\n
Famous for its imposing Angel of Water, this oft-photographed attraction dates to 1873 and has been featured in movies such as \u201cHair,\u201d \u201cGotham,\u201d and \u201cGodspell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artist Emma Stebbins, the first woman in the city to receive a commission for a significant public work, sculpted the towering figurine. She modeled the statue after her lover, actress Charlotte Cushman. At the time, angels were typically thought of as male, but \u201cStebbins referred to her angel as female,\u201d Azzarone noted.<\/p>\n
The icon is featured in several movies, including \u201cGodspell.\u201d Columbia Pictures<\/p>\n
Not everyone loved the design. One reviewer called it a \u201cfeebly-pretty idealess thing\u201d when it debuted. Stebbins died in 1882 at age 67 from lung disease \u2014 most likely aggravated by years of inhaling marble dust while working on her sculptures.<\/p>\n
Lowell Fountain, Bryant Park (near 41st Street and Sixth Avenue):<\/p>\n
Unique icicles form on the Lowell Fountain. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez<\/p>\n
A Bryant Park cornerstone since 1912, this ornate black granite fountain was the first major monument in the city to honor a woman: social worker and reformer Josephine Shaw Lowell.<\/p>\n
When her husband died while serving in the Civil War, she was eight-months pregnant and wore black mourning clothes for the rest of her life. She went on to become one of the city\u2019s most influential activists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fountain itself is treated so that its skin does not crack in summer and often forms icicles,\u201d Azzarone said. \u201cIt looks like a towering angel or some spooky fantastical creature.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulitzer Fountain, Grand Army Plaza at E. 59th St and Central Park<\/p>\n
Alice Vanderbilt hated having a view of the fountain named after the newspaper man. Robert F. Rodriguez<\/p>\n
The famous newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer bequeathed the money for a fountain to be built in his name when he died in 1911. It came to life in 1916, but its sculptor, Karl Bitter did not live to see it done.<\/p>\n
In 1915, he was killed in a car accident on the way home from the Met Opera with his wife. The fountain depicts the Roman goddess of Pomona carrying a basket of fruit, an image that offended Alice Vanderbilt, who lived directly across the street. \u201cHer bedroom window overlooked the statue, and she disliked it so much that she moved in to a room to the other side of her 137-room mansion,\u201d Azzarone said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cFountains are more than just decorative features,\u201d Stephanie Azzarone, a 72-year-old native New Yorker and history buff, told…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":187143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,18061,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5312,21198,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-187142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-central-park","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-parks","18":"tag-riverside-park","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115117402318990451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}