A century of fire hydrants cooling New York kids

"I’m not sure exactly when the first New York City fire hydrant was wrenched open so neighborhood kids could play in the cool rush of water on a hot summer day. But this very New York way to chase away the heat may have caught on and been officially sanctioned in the late teens, when John Hylan was mayor (below, in 1921, in a NYC Municipal Archives photo). 'The mayor is particularly good to children,' the Queens borough president was quoted saying in a New York Times article from 1925."
Ephemeral New York
Ephemeral New York: How city kids cooled off in the heat wave of 1953