Lotta Crabtree, a famous Vaudeville performer, who began her career in San Francisco during the gold rush, bought this 24-foot tall cast iron sculpture for the city in 1875. The beautiful Lotta reputedly danced on barrels in saloons for miners, who threw gold nuggets at her feet. Survivors of the 1906 earthquake, looking for a meeting place, used the fountain as a focal point for reuniting with their loved ones. Every year on April 18th, San Franciscans meet here in a ceremony of remembrance. The fountain was dismantled and restored in the late 1990s.

Credits and Sources:

American Society for Environmental History.

“Lotta’s Fountain.”National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form.

Photographs courtesy of the Library of Congress