Swann Memorial Fountain

From Freepedia

The Swann Memorial Fountain, is a fountain sculpture located in the center of Logan Square, encircled by Logan Circle, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

The fountain, by Alexander Stirling Calder designed with architect Wilson Eyre, memorializes Dr. Wilson Cary Swann, founder of the Philadelphia Fountain Society. The Philadelphia Fountain Society had been planning a memorial fountain in honor of its late president and founder. After agreeing that the fountain would become city property, the society was granted the site in the center of Logan Circle.

Adapting the tradition of “river god” sculpture, Calder created large Native American figures to symbolize the area’s major streams, the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and the Wissahickon. The young girl leaning on her side against an agitated, water-spouting swan represents the Wissahickon Creek; the mature woman holding the neck of a swan stands for the Schuylkill River; and the male figure, reaching above his head to grasp his bow as a large pike sprays water over him, symbolizes the Delaware River. Sculpted frogs and turtles spout water toward the 50-foot geyser in the center, though typically the geyser only spouts 25ft. The use of swans is an pun on Dr. Swann's name. Eyre designed the basin and the interlacing water jets, including the central geyser.

Besides serving as the center of Logan Square, the Fountain also serves as the midpoint on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Their Parkway also includes sculptures by two other generations of the Calder family. Stirling Calder's father, Alexander Milne Calder, designed statue of William Penn on the tower at City Hall on the south end while, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the north end, the mobile Ghosts is by Alexander Calder, Alexander Stirling Calder's son.