WKRP Fountain - Historic fountain and statue featured in the opening  of the sitcom WKRP IN CINCINNATI/CBS/1978-82.

Tyler Davidson Fountain in Cincinnati

The 43-foot statue is the focal point of the Tyler Davidson Fountain located in the center of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

The fountain was commissioned in 1871 by Henry Probasco to honor Tyler Davidson, his former partner in a hardware business. The statue depicts a female ("Genius of Water") standing on a pedestal in the middle of the fountain with water trickling from her downcast fingers.

Based on the design by August von Kreling discovered at the Royal Bronze Foundry of Bavaria in Germany, the Tyler Davidson fountain was cast with 24 tons of bronze from cannons purchased from the Danish government.

Base of the Tyler Davidson Fountain in Cincinnati

The foundation consists of tons of polished Bavarian porphyry stone. The top of the fountain features the imagery of the Genius of Water, surrounded below by other large figures depicting the uses and benefits of water including steam, water power, navigation, fisheries, the pleasures water gives us and the needs water fills in society.

At each corner of the fountain there are four drinking fountains designed by Colonel Ferdinand Von Miller that depict children playing with water animals (a dolphin, duck, a snake, and a turtle).

To create a site for the Tyler Davidson Fountain, the City Council of Cincinnati raised the Fifth Street Market Square on February 4, 1870 to prepare the ground for materials that were to arrive from Bavaria.

In the 1960s, the fountain was relocated a short distance north from the middle of Fifth Street for a new Fountain Square project.