[Unveiled 1916]
Joseph Pulitzer 1847-1911
b. Mako, Hungary •
d. Charleston, South Carolina Architect: Thomas Hastings 1860-1929 Sculptor: Karl Bitter 1867-1915 • Austria
Directly opposite the Plaza Hotel, located
within the southern half of Grand Army Plaza
is the Pulitzer Fountain sculpted by Karl Bitter,
the eminent sculptor of the late 19th century.
This elegant fountain, modeled after the
Place de la Concorde in Paris consists of six
shallow granite basins that decrease in size
as they rise upward toward its center
sculpture.
A graceful bronze figure of Pomona, goddess
of fruits and fertility, soars high above the
water that flows beneath her. The fountain
is named in memory of Joseph Pulitzer,
newspaperman and journalist who left
$50,000 for a fountain in the Plaza. The
day Bitter finished the clay model for the
sculpture; he was run over and killed by
a car in New York, giving his assistant the
task of completing the fountain.
