Lotta's Fountain – Market Street at the Intersection of Geary and Kearny Streets, Financial District, San Francisco, California

Standing at the corner of Market, Geary and Kearny streets in San Francisco, Lotta’s Fountain is a twenty-four-foot cast iron sculpture, painted bronze and adorned with lion’s heads, griffins, and other ornaments. It was commissioned by Lotta Crabtree, a Vaudeville actress, entertainer and comedian, as a gift to the city of San Franscisco. Lotta loved the city and had gotten her start there during the Gold Rush days, when she would dance on barrels in saloons for miners who would throw gold nuggets at her feet. Said to posses "the most beautiful ankle in the world," she was famous for her red hair, dark eyes, and her dances. She was especially known for the "Spider Dance, involving bodily gyrations intended to indicate shaking off of imaginary spiders and entangling spider webs." In the 1880s, she the highest paid actress in America, earning sums of up to $5,000 per week.

The cast iron fountain was dedicated on September 9, 1875. Lotta’s Fountain served as a meeting point during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and resulting fires, which is commemorated by a metal panel attached to the monument. Another panel, installed in 1911, mentions legendary opera soprano Luisa Tetrazzini, who sang for the people of San Francisco at the fountain on Christmas Eve, 1910. The bronze column was added in 1916 to equal the height of new lights being installed along Market Street.

Commemorations of the earthquake, including a dwindling pool of survivors, are held every year at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 at the intersection. It was relocated from its original location at 3rd, Market and Kearny in 1974 during the renovation of Market Street. In 1999, the fountain, which had suffered neglect in the previous decades, was totally refurbished to its 1875 appearance. It is painted with a metallic gold-brown paint. The lion's head-motif fountain stations located on the sides of the column flow during daytime hours.