The Temperance Fountain was originally placed at a prominent location: Seventh and Pennsylvania Avenue, across from Center Market and near to "Hooker's Division" (now the Federal Triangle). The message was to drink water, not whiskey, as there were so many
saloons along the Avenue to tempt passersby. This was near the halfway point between the Capitol and White House. For many years after
National Prohibition, it ironically sat in front of the Apex Liquor Store, which operated in the ground floor of the
Central National Bank Building. . In 1987, it was relocated about 100 feet north during the renewal by the
Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, since the statue was regarded as undesirable from the start. The PADC created Indiana Plaza, and the Temperance Fountain swapped locations with the monument to the
Grand Army of the Republic, which was considered historically more significant. Today the fountain sits at the corner of
Seventh Street and Indiana Avenue, NW, across from the
National Archives and
Navy Memorial, where thousands of tourists and workers walk past daily without noticing it. The Temperance Fountain has been called "the city's ugliest statue".
NBC correspondent
Bryson Rash, writing in
Footnote Washington, a 1981 book of capital lore, reported that "these unusual and awkward structures spurred the movement across the country for city fine arts commissions to screen such gifts" prior to funding. In April 1945, Sen.
Sheridan Downey of
California introduced a Senate resolution to remove the fountain, but, preoccupied with
World War II,
Congress ignored the resolution and it died in committee. ==Upkeep==