You may have seen the Prohibition drinking tour of Portland I put together for the current edition of Switch. (The print version has a really sweet map that didn't translate to the online version, so be sure to pick up a hard copy.) Since Portland is where this failed social experiment began, our city has many more sites related to Prohibition than the six I was able to include on the tour. And one of them happens to be a piece of public art.

"The Little Water Girl" is a bronze replica of a sculpture by George E. Wade in London. Originally installed as a working fountain in Congress Square in 1917, it was later moved to Deering Oaks in 1929, stored for a while during WWII, reinstalled in Deering Oaks and then finally placed outside of the Portland Public Library on Congress Street, where you can find it today.

So what's the Prohibition connection?

You see, this piece of public art was given to the city in 1917 in honor of Lillian M. N. Stevens and is also known as the Lillian M. N. Stevens Memorial Fountain. A Portland resident, Stevens was a founder of the Maine Woman's Christian Temperance Union, serving as both treasurer and later president for many years. She also served as VP of the national organization. The work of Stevens and her fellow teetotalers lives on in the Neal Dow house museum. Which just happens to be where my boozy tour begins.