The Fountain of Time by Loredo Taft was dedicated in Chicago in 1922. Taft spent fifteen years  on the project and even included himself as one of the figures. The fountain is 125 feet long and contains 100 figures passing before Father Time. It represents the full spectrum of humanity in varying stages of life and includes children, soldiers, kissing couples, etc.  It is the oldest finished piece of art made of concrete in the country. In 1999 a $1.6 million restoration was begun and has yet to be completed. The close up picture is from 1920 and the other is from the 1922 dedication (click to enlarge).

Tower Grove Park in St. Louis opened in 1868 with the then largest variety of tree species (over 200) of any urban park in the country. Today it still holds that honor with 7500 trees covering 325 species. The stone blocks in the photos came from the Lindell Hotel which burned in 1867. They were placed by the fountain to create an “ancient ruins” effect even though they were only four years old. The first photo is dated ca. 1900.

The Elk Fountain was donated to the City of Portland OR in 1900. It has four water troughs for horses and is still serving them to this day. The early photo is ca.1900.

Buckingham Fountain was donated to the City of Chicago by Kate Buckingham in honor of her brother. She left $1,000,000 ($14,000,000 in today’s dollars) for construction and maintenance. It is still one of the largest fountains  in the world with 15,000 gallons per minute flowing  to a height of 50 feet. The fountain contains 1,500,000 gallons of water.It opened in 1927 with 50,000 people in attendance to hear John Phillip Sousa play Stars and Stripes Forever.The first photo shows it under construction in 1925 and the third about one year later.

The Dupont Fountain sits in a Washington D.C.  traffic circle and was dedicated in 1921 However, it originally was a Civil War memorial honoring Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Dupont. It was installed in 1884 and had only footpaths around it as seen in the 1900 photo (click to enlarge). The monument was replaced by the fountain by the co-creators of a larger structure–the Lincoln Memorial. It was unprecedented  in Washington D.C. to have a monument to an individual removed and replaced by a fountain. The third photo is dated 1920

The fountain in Forsyth Park in Savannah Georgia was built in 1858. There are identical fountains in Cuzco, Peru; Madison, Indiana; and Poughkeepsie, NY – identical because they were purchased from a New York City catalogue for $3,000 each. Forsyth Park’s fountain has survived the Civil War, vandalism, and severe weather in it’s 158-year history. The first photo dates from 1868 and the third from 1875 (click both to enlarge).

The Lotta Crabtree Fountain was a gift to the people of San Francisco in 1875 as a sign of Lotta’s love for the city that so admired her as a vaudevillian during the Gold Rush. She went on to become one of the highest paid female performers  of her time. The fountain is the oldest surviving monument following the earthquake of 1906. It became the meeting place for families to review the list of missing and found people. To this day annually  on April 18 at 5:12 A.M.  a ceremony of remembrance is held at the fountain. The two then photos date to 1905.