“Fountains are more than just decorative features,” Stephanie Azzarone, a 72-year-old native New Yorker and history buff, told The Post.
Her new book, “Fabulous Fountains of New York” (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.
She notes that while some were designed to provide water for horses, others aimed to deter NYC’s human inhabitants from imbibing too much alcohol.
“The city created them with the hopes they would drink water instead,” launghed Azzarone, who produced the book with her photographer husband, Robert F. Rodriguez, 72.
The couple have called the Upper West Side home for more than 40 years and love exploring its history and, yes, its aquatic elements.
“There’s nothing more pleasurable and meditative than looking at water jetting out of a fountain,” she said.
Here, she shares the captivating stories behind five fountains;
Robert Ray Hamilton Fountain, Riverside Park at 76th Street
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.
He had an ongoing brothel dalliance with Evangeline Steele, and she falsely claimed he’d gotten her pregnant to force him into marriage.
A few months before their wedding, she visited her mother in upstate New York for months and returned with a baby that she’d bought off the black market, claiming the tot was theirs.
Hamilton eventually tired of his wife’s shenanigans and asked for a divorce. In a fit of rage, she stabbed the nurse they’d hired to care for their kid and was promptly arrested.
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.
“It’s one of my favorites in the city,” Azzarone said. “I love the scandalous story behind it.”
Fireman’s Memorial, Riverside Park and 100th Street
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.
Known as the “American Venus,” she was “the supermodel of her day” and “posed for at least 15 different monuments around the city.” 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.
Bethesda Fountain, Central Park at 72nd Street:
Famous for its imposing Angel of Water, this oft-photographed attraction dates to 1873 and has been featured in movies such as “Hair,” “Gotham,” and “Godspell.”
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 “Stebbins referred to her angel as female,” Azzarone noted.
Not everyone loved the design. One reviewer called it a “feebly-pretty idealess thing” when it debuted. Stebbins died in 1882 at age 67 from lung disease — most likely aggravated by years of inhaling marble dust while working on her sculptures.
Lowell Fountain, Bryant Park (near 41st Street and Sixth Avenue):
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.
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’s most influential activists.
“The fountain itself is treated so that its skin does not crack in summer and often forms icicles,” Azzarone said. “It looks like a towering angel or some spooky fantastical creature.”
Pulitzer Fountain, Grand Army Plaza at E. 59th St and Central Park
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.
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. “Her 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,” Azzarone said
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