Enrique Alferez's Fountain of the Four Winds: Beauty and Controversy
This file appears in: The Works Progress Administration Renovations and the Fall of Abe Shushan
Newspapers hailed the beautiful fountain with its flowing sculpture and underwater lights, but the statues' nudity generated controversy. It became so heated that Enrique Alferez once guarded his creation with a rifle to deter vandals. Eleanor Roosevelt defended the fountain, and the controversy cooled. The fountain does not currently work, but perhaps it will after restoration is done.
Courtesy of the Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library, WPA Photograph Collection
This file appears in: The Works Progress Administration Renovations and the Fall of Abe Shushan
The Works Progress Administration Renovations and the Fall of Abe Shushan
In 1936, a $250,000 Works Progress Administration beautification project took place at the airport and included extensive landscaping, paving roads and runways, and this fountain. Enrique Alférez…