Listening to the flowing waters of the 1912 “La Traida de Aguas de Osmeña” by American engineer Harry Cameron (1872-1928), American civil engineer and later Mayor of Baguio City Eusebius Julius Halsema (1882-1945) and Filipino engineer Marcelo Regner y Veloso, in Cebú City.
The history of the Fuente Osmeña (Osmeña Fountain) started with the development of the centralized potable and sterile water system for Cebú, after the province was devastated by a Cholera epidemic in 1903-1909. Before that, most people would get their water from home wells or the nearby rivers, which were compromised by garbage.
The then 1st Speaker of the Philippine Assembly and future president Sergio Osmeña (1878-1961) drafted the bill for the creation of the Cebú Waterworks System which led to the construction of the Buhisan Dam in 1911. To celebrate the completion of the Buhisan Dam in 1912, a fountain was contructed to show case the water pressure coming from the dam and the availability of clean water for the whole city. It was the then Resident Commissioner of the Philippines to the US Congress and future president Manuel Luis Quezón (187801944) who suggested that the water system and fountain be named after Osmeña.
Four years later the main road was constructed that would connect the old Spanish colonial downtown with the Fuente Osmeña and the future American period Cebú capital. This was first named Jones Avenue after the American congressman William Atkinson Jones (1849-1918) who sponsored the law for Philippine independence. In 1960, the road named Osmeña Boulevard after the first wife of the president, and the park around the fountain was also rechristened as the Fuente Osmeña Circle on the same year.
This picture was taken circa 2023, during my regular explorations to document local historical landmarks around the Philippines.
