Water fountain

The architectural work of Louis Sullivan is an integral part of the American Wing Courtyard, where two bronze staircases from the Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1893-94, demolished 1972) lead visitors up to the mezzanine and top balconies of the Courtyard. The American Wing collection also holds elements from other lost Sullivan buildings, in both terra cotta and metal, some of which are displayed on the Stock Exchange staircase landings. This rare sculptural glazed terra cotta water fountain, with its strong and beautiful Prairie School design, is an important addition to the Museum’s Sullivan collection. And it relates not only to the Sullivan materials, but also to the work of many of the important late 19th-century and early 20th-century American architects in the collection, especially Frank Lloyd Wright and the firm of Purcell and Elmslie, both of which were associated with Sullivan at one time.

As far as is known, only two other of these water fountains survive, both of which remain in the bank buildings (People’s Federal Savings and Loan Association, Sidney, Ohio, [1918] and Farmers and Merchants Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin [1919]) for which Sullivan designed them. The design can be verified and dated by an entry in the company records of the American Terra Cotta Company, which lists design "2816 Peoples Savings and Loan, Sidney, OH, Louis H. Sullivan". It isn’t known where this example was installed originally—at first it was thought it might have come from another bank, but Sullivan didn’t design any banks (or any buildings at all,) after the Columbus, Wisconsin bank in 1919, so it seems unlikely that it was taken out of another bank. An article on the building of the Sidney, Ohio bank recounts that Sullivan rejected three water fountains before accepting the one that still stands in the bank today. The fountain of this design that is extant in the Sidney bank is has a two tone glaze—the top section is a mottled green and cream, while the bottom section is plain cream like this one. We now surmise that this all cream-colored example may have been one of the water fountains Sullivan rejected for the Sidney bank, finding the all cream palette too plain, and had the green glaze added for his final choice.