Why the Art Museum hasn’t used the fountains on the sides of the Rocky steps in decades

It used to be that you didn’t have to head to your local pool to cool off in Philadelphia.

Instead, folks’ favorite swimming spot was often the local municipal fountain. And one of the most popular ones in the city lined the grand steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

For decades, the cascade fountains, as they are officially known, attracted hundreds of swimmers at a time looking to cool off as the mercury rose — or just sit and enjoy a moment watching the water flow. But they’ve been inactive for decades now, stripping the museum’s grounds of an element that was a favorite of many Philadelphians.

So, why doesn’t the Art Museum use the fountains flanking its famous Rocky steps anymore? That’s what one reader asked through Curious Philly, The Inquirer’s repository for your questions about the Philadelphia region.

Ultimately, the decision to no longer use the cascade fountains isn’t the Art Museum’s to make. The fountains, as well as the famous steps, are actually city property, and are under the domain of the Parks and Recreation department.

As a result of ongoing drainage and masonry issues, the fountains haven’t been used in more than 20 years. Today, they’re just for decoration, and will remain that way for the foreseeable future.

“The fountains are cleaned and maintained for ornamental use only,” Parks and Rec spokesperson Maita Soukup said.

More information about the drainage and masonry issues that have plagued the steps and fountains wasn’t immediately available, Soukup said. But the fountains appear to have been shut down due to maintenance issues since at least 1995, according to Inquirer reporting from the time.

That July, all of the museum’s fountains were shut down for repairs to the “labyrinth of plumbing, pipes, pumps and valves feeding and supporting” them, The Inquirer reported. As it turns out, the area under the famous steps is hollow, and houses machinery that runs the fountains.

According to a study commissioned by the Fairmount Park Commission in the 1990s, water had been leaking into the area, and caused some deterioration to the structural beams and walls supporting the steps. A project to repair the issue was announced in 1992, and scheduled to be completed by Thanksgiving 1996, according to an Inquirer report.

But based on Inquirer coverage, as well as Soukup’s response, the cascade fountains were never turned back on after that fateful day in 1995.

That, however, wasn’t the first time the cascade fountains were turned off. After debuting with their first test in 1927, the fountains were periodically turned off over the years for various reasons.

Chief among those reasons was Philadelphians using them as swimming pools. In 1971, for example, the Fairmount Park Commission voted to shut off the fountains and drain their basins after two people were reportedly paralyzed as a result of injuries they suffered by diving in them. Those episodes were among a string of injuries over the years that included skull fractures and concussions. But the shutdown, which ended the following year, was not a decision that was made lightly.

“I regret deeply that we have to do this. But I’m afraid we have to. It’s just not a swimming pool,” commission chairman Robert W. Crawford told The Inquirer in 1971.

Intermittent shutoffs continued at the cascade fountains throughout the 1980s, including because of a city water shortage in 1985 that also impacted other fountains around Philadelphia.

Then, in 1992, economic troubles hit the cascade fountains and other city water fixtures, according to an Inquirer report. That summer, many of the city’s fountains remained dormant because of badly damaged infrastructure, maintenance and safety issues caused by swimmers, and a lack of available funding and employees to keep them running.

At least one notable Philadelphian bemoaned the lack of city fountains that year. Ed Bacon, former Philadelphia City Planning Commission head and the man behind why much of Center City looks the way it does today, couldn’t stand it.

“Fountains are very important in order to take the sting out of the asphalt city,” Bacon told The Inquirer. “Like trees, they make it humane. The city needs every assistance it can get to stay a humane place that people thrive in and are not oppressed by.”