Bailey Fountain | |
---|---|
Artist | Egerton Swartwout (architect) Eugene Savage (sculptor) |
Completion date | 1929-1932 [1] |
Medium | Fountain |
Location | Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City |
40°40′26″N73°58′12″W / 40.67389°N 73.97009°W |
Bailey Fountain is an outdoor sculpture in New York City at the site of three 19th century fountains in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, New York, United States. Renovated in 1956 [2] and 2005-06, [3] the 1932 fountain was funded by philanthropist Frank Bailey as a memorial to his wife Mary Louise Bailey. [4] After 1974 thefts, some sculpture elements were stored for safekeeping. The bronze Art Deco design of the Bailey Fountain consists of six monumental figures beginning with the top two, a man representing Wisdom with his left hand on the tiller steering the ship of Life and a woman representing Felicity with her right hand holding a cornucopia. Below them are two other statues, one a chubby standing child helping to shoulder that cornucopia while the second is a laughing Greek mythological figure called Nereus who is the eldest son of Pontus the Sea and Gaia the Earth. To the sides of the fountain are the two remaining aquatic Nereides / sea nymph figures with upper torsos emerging from the water their heads back trumpeting with conch shells as their fish tails twist in the background. [2]
The Fountain of the Golden Spray of 1867 [5] with a single jet of water was part of the 1867 Grand Army Plaza design.
The 1873 dome fountain by Calvert Vaux replaced the 1867 fountain [6] with a two-tiered, double-domed structure of cast iron and molded sections of Beton Coignet . [7] Gaslights in the 37.2 foot (11.4 m) diameter dome [7] were visible through one of 24 colored glass windows for evening illumination. [8] Additional gaslights mounted in the guardrail illuminated the surface of the pool. [9] [10] The Brooklyn Mayor criticized the water use of the fountain which could pump 60,000 gallons an hour, [11] and by the 1890s the fountain leaked and was frequently dry. [12] A boy drowned in the fountain in June 1895. [13]
The 1897 Electric Fountain replaced the 1873 fountain and was controlled by 2 operators during scheduled night exhibitions on Wednesdays and Saturdays with audiences up to 30,000. [14] A Brooklyn Park Commissioner's initial plan for a single spout was superseded by Fredric W. Darlington's [15] design, which was presented in May 1897 to the Park Commission.[ citation needed ] Wilson & Baillie Manufacturing built the fountain, and the commission's "consulting engineer" was C. C. Martin. [16] Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted placed the fountain at the intersection of two broad paths arranged as a Georgian cross within grassy, treeless plots at the quadrants.[ citation needed ] The "first exhibition" contracted for July 4, 1897, [16] was delayed until August 7 and attended by "fully 100,000 people". [17]
The 6,000 candela "automatic focusing arc lamps" were wired in 3 series circuits for dimming, could each be moved 2 ft (0.61 m) within "silver parabolic reflectors" to narrow or widen the 19 beams, [16] and were positioned in concentric rings around a central light. The lights extended into glass cylinders protruding through the underwater ceiling and were each beamed through switchable disks of colored gels into water jets (there was also a lighted central geyser). The ~2,000 nozzles included umbrellas, ball sprays, wheat sheaves, rings, fans, funnels [16] and whirligigs; [18] with many of the nozzles around the lamp housings. [12] An underground control room on the south of the basin allowed the lighting and hydraulics operators to view through three closely spaced windows in the basin wall [19] 6 in (0.15 m) above the pool surface. [18] A pump recirculated up to 100,000 gallons per hour from the pool in the 120-foot-diameter (37 m) basin. [18] The fountain also had 88 incandescent lamps on the inner edge of the basin's concrete coping, and the Brooklyn Heights and the Nassau Electric railroads [18] donated the electricity. [16]
The 1915 construction of the New York City Subway's IRT Eastern Parkway Line ( 2 , 3 , 4 , and 5 trains) and BMT Brighton Line ( B and Q trains) under the plaza left no room for the required infrastructure for the Electric Fountain, which was removed. [20]
Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is a botanical garden in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. The botanical garden occupies 52-acre (21 ha) in central Brooklyn, close to Mount Prospect Park, Prospect Park, and the Brooklyn Museum. Designed by the Olmsted Brothers, BBG holds over 14,000 taxa of plants and has over 800,000 visitors each year. It includes a number of specialty gardens, plant collections, and structures. BBG hosts numerous educational programs, plant-science and conservation, and community horticulture initiatives, in addition to a herbarium collection and a horticulture and botany library.
Prospect Park is an urban park in Brooklyn, New York City. The park is situated between the neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, and Windsor Terrace, and is adjacent to the Brooklyn Museum, Grand Army Plaza, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. With an area of 526 acres (213 ha), Prospect Park is the second largest public park in Brooklyn, behind Marine Park. Designated as a New York City scenic landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Prospect Park is operated by the Prospect Park Alliance and NYC Parks.
Grand Army Plaza, originally known as Prospect Park Plaza, is a public plaza that comprises the northern corner and the main entrance of Prospect Park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It consists of concentric oval rings arranged as streets, with the namesake Plaza Street comprising the outer ring. The inner ring is arranged as an ovoid roadway that carries the main street – Flatbush Avenue. Eight radial roads connect Vanderbilt Avenue; Butler Place; two separate sections of Saint John's Place; Lincoln Place; Eastern Parkway; Prospect Park West; Union Street; and Berkeley Place. The only streets that penetrate to the inner ring are Flatbush Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Park West, Eastern Parkway, and Union Street.
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate railway lines in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States. It was a prominent corporation and industry leader using the single-letter symbol B on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Grand Army Plaza station is a local station on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line of the New York City Subway. It is located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, underneath Flatbush Avenue at its intersection with Plaza Street West and St. Johns Place, on the northwest side of Grand Army Plaza. It is served by the 2 train at all times, the 3 train at all times except late nights, and the 4 train during late nights.
The Prospect Park Zoo is a 12-acre (4.9 ha) zoo located off Flatbush Avenue on the eastern side of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. As of 2016, the zoo houses 864 animals representing about 176 species, and as of 2007, it averages 300,000 visitors annually. The Prospect Park Zoo is operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In conjunction with the Prospect Park Zoo's operations, the WCS offers children's educational programs, is engaged in restoration of endangered species populations, runs a wildlife theater, and reaches out to the local community through volunteer programs.
The Prospect Park station is an express station on the BMT Brighton Line of the New York City Subway. It is located in between Lincoln Road, Lefferts Avenue, Empire Boulevard, Ocean Avenue and Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, near the border of Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Park Slope, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens. The station, which serves Prospect Park and Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is served by the Q train and Franklin Avenue Shuttle at all times and by the B train on weekdays.
The Hudson Avenue Line was a horse car street railway line in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, running mostly along Hudson Avenue in Vinegar Hill, near Downtown Brooklyn. It was short-lived, operating only from 1867 to 1871, but its trackage rights over the Brooklyn City Rail Road allowed the Atlantic Avenue Railroad to operate South Ferry-Prospect Park cars for many years.
The B69 is a bus route that constitutes a public transit line operating in Brooklyn, New York City, running along 7th Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue between Kensington and Dumbo. The B69 is operated by the MTA New York City Transit Authority. Its precursor was a streetcar line that began operation in 1869, and was known as the Vanderbilt Avenue Line. The route became a bus line in 1950.
The Crosstown Line is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, running along Van Brunt Street and Manhattan Avenue between Red Hook and Long Island City, Queens. Originally a streetcar line, it is now the B61 and the B62 bus routes. The northern section, the B62, is operated by MTA New York City Bus' Grand Avenue Depot in Maspeth, Queens, and the southern section is the B61, operated by MTA New York City Bus' Jackie Gleason Depot in Sunset Park. The entire route was a single line, the B61, until January 3, 2010; the B62 was previously a separate, parallel route between Downtown Brooklyn and Greenpoint, now part of the B43 route. The streetcar line, B61 and the original B62 previously operated from the now-closed Crosstown Depot in Greenpoint.
The Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line were two public transit lines in Brooklyn, New York City with the Graham Avenue Line running mainly along Graham Avenue and Manhattan Avenue and the Tompkins Avenue Line running mainly along Tompkins Avenue. The Graham Avenue line ran between Downtown Brooklyn and Greenpoint and the Tompkins Avenue Line ran between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Williamsburg. Originally streetcar lines, they were replaced by the B47 and B62 bus routes which were then combined to form the B43 route which currently operates between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Greenpoint. The line is dispatched from Jackie Gleason Depot in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Grand Army Plaza is a square at the southeast corner of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, covering two blocks on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 58th and 60th Streets. It contains an equestrian statue of William Tecumseh Sherman on its northern half and the Pulitzer Fountain on its southern half.
Grand Prospect Hall, also known as Prospect Hall, was a large Victorian-style banquet hall at 263 Prospect Avenue in the South Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It was primarily an event space, hosting weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and high-school proms. The hall was housed in a building that architect Ulrich J. Huberty designed in the French Renaissance style.
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch is a triumphal arch at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York City, just north of Prospect Park. Built from 1889 to 1892, the arch is dedicated "To the Defenders of the Union, 1861–1865".
The Central Library, originally the Ingersoll Memorial Library, is the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in Brooklyn, New York City. Located on Grand Army Plaza, at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway, it contains over 1.7 million materials in its collection and has a million annual visitors. The current structure was designed by the partnership of Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally in the Art Deco style, replacing a never-completed Beaux-Arts structure designed by Raymond Almirall. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Concert Grove is a section of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City, that historically functioned as an outdoor music venue. It still serves as a sculpture garden lined with busts of musical figures, largely put up by German American Sängerfest participants and other cultural groups. The Concert Grove also includes the Concert Grove Pavilion, formerly known as the Oriental Pavilion, and adjoins a Lincoln sculpture facing the lake.
The Offerman Building is a historic commercial building at 503–513 Fulton Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Danish architect Peter J. Lauritzen in the Romanesque Revival style, the eight-story building was built between 1890 and 1892 to house the S. Wechsler & Brother department store. Although the lower stories remain in commercial use, the upper stories were converted into a 121-unit residential complex in the 2010s. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Coignet Stone Company Building is a historical structure in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, at the intersection of Third Street and Third Avenue. Designed by architects William Field and Son and constructed between 1872 and 1873, it is the city's oldest remaining concrete building. The Coignet Building is the last remaining structure of a five-acre concrete factory complex built for the Coignet Agglomerate Company along the Gowanus Canal.
fountain near the arch…in operation for two weeks … opening night, fully 100,000 people watched the display. …brilliant reds, blues, and greens[ verification needed ] (cited by Kelsey 1900, p. 237, w/ photos)
There are twelve combinations of water, spray, jet, and other effects, varying from one to several hundred outlets, and to supply these twelve combinations twelve separate taps are taken from the main pipe extending upward to a corresponding number of gate-lever controlled valves, from which these supply pipes extend up to the bottom of the fountain and pass to the various outlets: 220