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288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915 ⌕
Gazetteer › The Walled City
Fountain · The Walled City

Fountain of El Dorado

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's mural fountain of the rush for El Dorado, a crowd straining toward a half-open door before "the magic doors of Opportunity should close."

The Fountain of El Dorado (plate in Todd)
The Fountain of El Dorado (plate in Todd)Plate in Todd, 1921, public domain · Restored

The west wing court of the Tower of Jewels mirrored the east and held Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Fountain of El Dorado. Its subject, Todd wrote, was the legend of El Dorado, "motor-myth of this western land." A half-open portal stood guarded by two Inca figures, and on both sides the frieze showed "a mad rush of mortals to pass these guardians, in pursuit of the Gilded King, before the magic doors of Opportunity should close."

The Official Guide called its mood "Realistic." Todd cites its friezes, with some 40 human figures, as an example of the large reliefs the sculpture shops had to produce. Whitney received a Medal of Award for it (Wikipedia).

At a glance

  • Listed sixth of the nine fountains in the Official Guide.
  • Todd describes another Whitney fountain, a marble basin carried by three heroic male figures, at the entrance to the Fine Arts galleries (vol. 4); Wikipedia records that her Aztec Fountain won a bronze medal at the 1915 exposition.
  • It sat behind Rumsey's equestrian Pizarro, which stood before the west colonnade (Todd vol. 2).
The Fountain of El Dorado
The Fountain of El DoradoW. Zenis Newton, 1915, public domain · Restored
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Fountain of El Dorado
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Fountain of El DoradoBain News Service, 1915 · Public domain · Restored
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's The Door to El Dorado
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's The Door to El DoradoDe Witt Ward, photographer, 1915 · Public domain · Restored

Afterward

Not recorded as preserved in Todd's salvage account; presumably lost with the Tower in 1916.

Where it stood

The Fountain of El Dorado stood at about 37.80194 N, 122.44261 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →

Sources