The original Hebe Fountain was a joint project of the 1895 Mental Culture Club (now known as the Roseburg Woman's Club) and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Providing water for horses, dogs, and humans, the fountain stood in the intersection of Cass and Main streets. The dedication of the fountain took place on September 30, 1908.
Numerous Hebe figures used on WCTU fountains throughout the United Stated. The Roseburg Hebe fountain was part of that tradition. Many are still in existence. However on April 3, 1912 a runaway team of horses struck the fountain flinging the statue twenty feet on to the street. The wisdom of replacing the fountain in the same intersection was never resolved, and the statue disappeared.
As part of a Roseburg Town Center historic restoration, Bob Heaton, a local history teacher promoted the replacement of Roseburg's Hebe fountain in newly refurbished Eagles Park, a location under consideration in 1908. In March 2002 the city Park Commission voted to recommend that a replica statue of Hebe be placed in Eagles Park and the Roseburg City Council agreed.
Hebe is a metaphor for youth and thirst. The original sculpture was created by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). Thorvaldsen did both Classical and Christian sculpture. The contemporary Hebe sculpture was cast
from molds made from the original figure which now stands in the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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