Cherry Hill Fountain - Central Park

This large, elaborate Victorian fountain was designed and installed for the benefit of … horses!... more

by Steve Rosenbach

Title

Cherry Hill Fountain - Central Park

Artist

Steve Rosenbach

Medium

Photograph

Description

This large, elaborate Victorian fountain was designed and installed for the benefit of … horses!

You see, once Central Park was completed around 1870, up-and-coming young men would go speeding around the drives in the Park in their horse-drawn carriages (think Corvettes and Porsches.) This was foreseen by the architects of the Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux – in fact, that’s largely why they put the vehicle paths in the Park in the first place – for pleasure-driving.

On problem with the horse-and-carriage setup is that it’s very hard to back up; there’s no reverse gear on a horse, you know. So Olmsted and Vaux designed Cherry Hill on the south side of the Boat Lake with a circular drive, so that the carriages could enter in one direction and come out the other way. And while they were at it, why not let the horses take a break and have a drink? So that’s what the fountain, designed by the polymath Jacob Wrey Mould, was for. Mr. Mould contributed a number of other designs to the Park, including the sculptural details of the grand staircase at Bethesda Terrace.

No more horse-drinking, or human-drinking, for that matter is allowed at the fountain, but it still looks beautiful and works great. When I lived in Manhattan in the late 70′s, Cherry Hill was a mess, and the fountain was dry, chipped, and covered with graffiti. Thanks to the Central Park Conservancy, along with a gift from Elizabeth and Clement Moore, the fountain and its operation has been fully restored since 1998.

Uploaded

August 10th, 2014