44. BUBBLERS: Cogswell’s Infamous Fountains

In the middle of downtown Pawtucket, there’s an old, no longer functioning drinking fountain that most people assume is just a statue. But it’s one of only a handful of remaining Temperance Fountains, donated to the city by a man who believed that the solution to drunkenness might just be a glass of fresh, cold water. 

To Visit: Corner of Roosevelt Ave and Main Street, Pawtucket RI | You can map to 175 Main Street, Pawtucket, RI 02860

Episode Source Material: 

• Debunking the the bubbler myth
• Henry D. Cogswell - Wikipedia
• Boston Daily Globe | September 27, 1893
• Temperance fountain - Wikipedia
• “God's Free Gift to Man and Beast” - Henry Cogswell's Temperance Fountains | Rhode Tour
• Dubuque Daily Herald | March 6, 1885
• Sandy Creek News | July 28, 1887
• Frederick Weekly News | May 29, 1884
• Brooklyn Daily Eagle | July 16, 1883
• Thompsonville Press | May 5, 1881
• Stafford Springs Press | October 8, 1885
• “All Benefactors of Man I Claim as My Brethren”: Henry D. Cogswell and his Fountains of Philanthropy | SPMC
• Tompkins Square Park Monuments - Temperance Fountain
• Cogswell Memorial Fountain
• Temperance Fountain: Nobody Knows How Dry It Was - Heyday DC
• Jenks Park and Cogswell Tower , Adjoining £80 Broad Street to the north Providence Central .Falls
• Pawtucket Walking Tour
• Shenipsit Lake - Wikipedia
• Temperance Fountain – Washington, DC - Atlas Obscura
• Prohibition: A Case Study of Progressive Reform | Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929 | US History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress
• History of Drinking Water Treatment
• Women Led the Temperance Charge – Prohibition: An Interactive History
• A Brief History of US Drinking - JSTOR Daily
• The time when Americans drank all day long - BBC News
• Access to Free Public Water Fountains Might Have the Temperance Movement to Thank
• 13 Weird Moments In The History Of Water Fountains | HuffPost Life
• New York Times | June 11, 1859
• Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews