Fountain Square and the Genius of Water: The Heart of Cincinnati

By Gregory Parker Rogers

In 1871, Henry Probasco donated the Tyler Davidson Fountain to the people of the city of Cincinnati in honor of his brother-in-law. Probasco wanted to leave a practical and artistic gift to the city and its residents that had made both men fabulously wealthy. Though it was placed on Fifth Street, away from the central business district, the fountain became a centerpiece of the city around its boom years, and downtown Cincinnati grew up around the statue. Author Greg Rogers chronicles the history of the fountain and its influence on the landscape and culture of the city.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Apr 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781614239598

Gregory Parker Rogers

Gregory Parker Rogers is an attorney, writer and historian in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of The History Press's Cincinnati's Hyde Park: A Brief History of a Queen City Gem.

Book preview

2013

INTRODUCTION

Fountain Square sits in what is now the center of downtown Cincinnati, and the fountain, whose theme is the Genius of Water and is known as the Tyler Davidson Fountain, sits in the middle of the square. While the current version of the square is the third one, over more than 140 years, the Genius of Water has remained the same. Since its 1871 dedication, it has long been Cincinnati’s iconic figure.

Fountain Square is the living room of downtown Cincinnati. When an event happens, people congregate on the square. The World Choir Games took place, in part, on the square in the summer of 2012. Every time the Cincinnati Reds have won the World Series (five separate occasions spanning seventy-one years), the celebration happens there, as do many other kinds of celebrations. Political pep rallies occur there, as do protest marches. Kaiser Wilhelm I was burned in effigy there on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. Wedding parties have their pictures taken on the square on Saturdays. Prom dates take their pictures there. Tourists take photographs. The situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati filmed its opening sequence there.

In the winter, people ice skate on the square’s large outdoor skating rink, which sits next to both an enormous decorated Christmas tree and also a large menorah that is illuminated during Hanukkah. Broomball matches take place in the rink on January and February weekday evenings. During the summer, events are held on the square’s stage almost every weekday at lunchtime by one organization or another. Concerts of all types of music are held many nights. A lunchtime wiener dog race is held at the beginning of the city’s Oktoberfest, the largest outside of Munich. German-style beer hall bands play on the square during the entire Oktoberfest weekend and are interrupted only for the world’s largest chicken dance. Downtown workers eat their lunches in the square on nice spring, summer and fall days.

The nine-foot-tall Genius of Water has been the iconic image of Cincinnati since 1871. Courtesy of J. Miles Wolf.

This 2012 photograph shows the fountain and Fountain Square at lunchtime on a nice summer day. Downtown workers and many visitors routinely eat their lunches on the square. Courtesy of J. Miles Wolf.

The Tyler Davidson Fountain was dedicated on October 6, 1871, in a public ceremony attended by more than twenty thousand people, including Ohio governor and future president Rutherford B. Hayes. This image is from an engraving that was published by Harper’s Weekly magazine one week earlier, on September 30, 1871. The engraving was made from a photograph of the fountain taken earlier in 1871 in Munich, home of the fountain’s foundry. From the library of Jim Tarbell.

Why does Cincinnati have this fountain and Fountain Square? It is the brainchild of Henry Probasco, a hardware store merchant who became fabulously wealthy supplying the needs of Cincinnati residents in the 1850s when the population of Cincinnati grew by leaps and bounds. At that time, it was the nation’s largest inland port, and it was among the ten largest cities in the country. Probasco retired in 1866 at the age of forty-six after the death of Tyler Davidson, his brother-in-law and business partner. It was long the dream of Davidson and Probasco to donate a monument to the city as their way of thanking their adopted hometown for its part in their success, and Probasco turned this dream into a reality.

The first square was a boulevard in the middle of Fifth Street from 1871 until the mid-1960s, when civic leaders recognized the need for urban renewal in the heart of the city. The second version of the square, located in the middle of a revitalized Fountain Square area complete with new buildings, was dedicated in 1969, and it lasted for thirty-six years. In the early 2000s, a new generation of civic leaders recognized the limitations of the 1969 design, and they came forward with a new design for the square that was dedicated in 2006. Through all three versions of the square, the fountain and the square have remained at the heart of downtown Cincinnati, integral to the image of the city.

The following chapters detail the beginning of the city of Cincinnati, explain why the square was placed where it was within the city’s 1789 street grid, describe Probasco and his quest for this first American fountain of note and explain how the great Genius of Water came to be made. The book goes on to describe the buildings around the square since 1871, what happened to them and how and when the current buildings around the square came to be.

Chapter 1

FOUNTAIN SQUARE BEFORE THE SQUARE—OR THE FOUNTAIN

Overview

Cincinnati was founded on December 28, 1788, by settlers looking to start a new community on land that was part of the Miami Purchase. The streets were laid out and the property platted by January 1789; much of this original street grid and plat design remains today, more than 220 years later. Native American claims on the land remained a source of friction with the white settlers. In late 1789, Fort Washington was built in Cincinnati to provide protection to the settlers. Through the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, the Indians agreed to vacate the southern part of the Ohio Territory, and Cincinnati grew rapidly. By 1850, Cincinnati was the sixth-largest city in the United States and the largest and most important city in the American