Thursday, June 26, 2025 – Washington Square’s Fountain was a Great Place for a Dip

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When Washington Square Park Fountain Was Turned Into a Pool

Untapped New York

Thursday, June 25, 2025

Issue # 1473

Instead of a leisurely day around a cool swimming pool, I spent my day yesterday in the cafeteria of PS/IS 217. It was Primary Election Day and along with 23 other poll workers
we were there to assist 591 residents to vote. Thanks to my great team, the PS 217 Principal Mandana we had a great day while the school was in session.

Aside from the voters, friends and families were there for the 8th grade graduation and th 5th grade moving up. It was quite a day at our neighborhood public school.
As part of an earlier research, we worked with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Archive to locate these photos from 1935, when the Washington Square Park fountain (in its earlier form and location) was converted into a wading pool!

Renovation of the fountain took place in 1934, on the initiative of Robert Moses, who is otherwise reviled for his plan to put a highway through Greenwich Village. Moses had steps installed around the inside of the stone rim to assist people in accessing the water.

The original Washington Square fountain was a circular bluestone fountain completed in 1852. Its designer is unknown. That first fountain was replaced in 1870 by a water fixture recycled from Central Park. Architect Jacob Wrey Mould is credited with the design. Mould, who was Architect-in-Chief for the Department of Public Works at the time, also designed the fountain in City Hall Park, the wooden loggia at Belvedere Castle, and the Bethesda Terrace carvings and fountain base in Central Park among other sites.

Mould’s fountain, relocated from the Fifty-Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue entrance of Central Park to the center of Washington Square, sat in the same spot for over 130 years.

In 2009, the fountain was restored, combining elements from all time periods of its existence. It was also shifted east more than twenty feet, ostensibly to align with the Washington Square Park arch, but this reason—and if the fountain is actually aligned with the arch—has been hotly debated.

To this day, it’s not technically illegal to jump into a New York City park fountain, but you aren’t allowed to use it to take a bath or for personal hygiene. The 32,000 gallons of water that flow through this fountain are filtered, like the roughly 50 other fountains in New York City parks. Would you take a dip?

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Untapped New York

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