Temperance Fountain, Washington DC
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Temperance Fountain
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| Location | 7th Street & Indiana Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. |
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| Coordinates | 38°53′37″N 77°1′19″W / 38.89361°N 77.02194°WCoordinates: 38°53′37″N 77°1′19″W / 38.89361°N 77.02194°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1884 |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian |
| MPS | Memorials in Washington, D.C. |
| NRHP Reference # | 07001061 |
| Added to NRHP | October 12, 2007 |
 NCPC CinemaVisiting Washington's Lesser Known Memorials |
The Temperance Fountain is a fountain and statue located in Washington, D.C., donated to the city in 1882 by Henry D. Cogswell, a dentist from San Francisco, California, who was a crusader in the temperance movement. This fountain was one of a series of temperance fountains he designed and commissioned in a belief that easy access to cool drinking water would keep people from consuming alcoholic beverages.
The fountain has four stone columns supporting a canopy on whose sides the words "Faith," "Hope," "Charity," and "Temperance" are chiseled. Atop this canopy is a life-sized heron, and the centerpiece is a pair of entwined heraldic scaly dolphins. Originally, visitors were supposed to freely drink ice water flowing from the dolphins' snouts with a brass cup attached to the fountain and the overflow was collected by a trough for horses, but the city tired of having to replenish the ice in a reservoir underneath the base and disconnected the supply pipes.
The inscription reads:
(Base of fish:)
PRESENTED BY
DR. HENRY D. COGSWELL
OF SAN FRANCISCO CAL
(Top of temple:)
TEMPERANCE
FAITH
HOPE
CHARITY
Inscription
Sculpture of two fish inside the enclosure
Crane atop the fountain
The Temperance Fountain was originally placed at a prominent location: Seventh and Pennsylvania Avenue, across from Center Market and near to "Hooker's Division" (now the Federal Triangle). The message was to drink water, not whiskey, as there were so many saloons along the Avenue to tempt passersby. This was near the halfway point between the Capitol and White House. For many years after National Prohibition, it ironically sat in front of the Apex Liquor Store, which operated in the ground floor of the Central National Bank Building.
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