Bethesda Fountain, Central Park

Post published:August 27, 2019

Except for the four brutally practical transverse roads, the only straight line in the Greensward plan is the Mall. Vaux and Olmsted thought a grand promenade was essential for a metropolitan park – a place to stroll, to mingle, to see and be seen. The four lines of shade trees evoke rows of columns running the length of a church. Bethesda Terrace serves as the apse.

Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, Greensward Plan, as shown in the New York Times, 5/1/1858. The Mall is the double row of dotted lines toward the left, just below the Parade Ground; Bethesda Terrace is just across Terrace Drive (72nd Street ). The arrow indicates a view across the Lake to the Ramble and, eventually, Belvedere Castle.

The Mall in 1864, with four rows of newly planted trees.

Vaux and Olmsted’s policy was, “Nature first, second, and third – architecture after a while.” So from the north end of the Mall, all you see is a sweeping view across the Lake to the wilds of the Ramble – the sort of pastoral view Vaux and Olmsted loved.

View from Bethesda Terrace towards the Belvedere in 1882. Image: McCabe via Internet Archive of Book Images. The artist must have been copying an earlier print, since that simple fountain on the Terrace had been replace in 1873 with Angel of the Waters.

To prevent Bethesda Terrace from blocking the view to the Ramble, it sits at the level of the Lake. The three grand staircases leading from the Mall down to the Terrace – the work of Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould – are among the most beautiful and memorable architectural features of the Park.

Construction of Bethesda Terrace, 1862. Photo by Victor Prevost. The Lake and the site of Bethesda Fountain are to the left, the Mall to the right.

At the center of the Terrace is the one and only piece of sculpture that Vaux and Olmsted planned for the park. It’s the work of Emma Stebbins, who conceived the idea of representing the “angel of the waters.” A Biblical story tells of an angel who occasionally came down to stir the waters of the Pool of Bethesda, near Jerusalem. The first person to step into the pool afterwards was cured of anything that ailed him.

Stebbins put a technological twist on the “healing waters.” By the 1830s, New York was the nation’s largest city, but its limited supply of water was disease-ridden: a hazard to life and property. Between 1837 and 1842, the forty-one-mile Croton Aqueduct was constructed to bring abundant fresh water to the city. It was among the great engineering achievements of the nineteenth century. (More on that in a post coming in October 2019, to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the Croton Aqueduct.)

Croton Water celebration, 1842. Image: New York Public Library

In the 1850s, one of the strongest arguments for situating a park near the center of Manhattan was the fact that it would thereby include the Aqueduct’s impressively large receiving reservoir. When Bethesda Fountain was dedicated in 1873, visitors to the park still strolled across the Bow Bridge and meandered through the Ramble in order to promenade around the walls of the original reservoir. Just north of it was the new reservoir, completed in 1862 and six times the size of the old one.

The original Reservoir in 1842. Currier & Ives.

Central Park in 1865, with both reservoirs. Image: David Rumsey Map Collection.

It’s Croton Water that the Angel of the Waters is celebrating. She holds a lily, representing purity.

Emma Stebbins, Bethesda Fountain, dedicated 1873. Photo copyright © 2019 Dianne L. Durante

On the pedestal, a pair of children symbolize Purity and Health – both made possible through a plentiful supply of clean water. The third child is Temperance. For decades, drinking strong alcohol had been less hazardous than drinking New York’s disease-ridden water – the Croton Aqueduct helped make it safe to stay sober. And the fourth child? He’s Peace, and he’s here as wishful thinking. When the fountain was designed, the Civil War was still raging.

Photo copyright © 2019 Dianne L. Durante

Base of Bethesda Fountain, designed by Jacob Wrey Mould.

For more on Central Park in the 1850s-1870s, see my book Central Park: The Early Years.
For early images of Central Park, see the pages on this site for through 1860, 1861-1865, and 1866-1870.
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