Long before Toronto’s streets were jam-packed with cars and motorcycles, they were filled with carriages and horse-drawn streetcars.
In the 19th and early 20th century, horses were one of the city’s primary modes of transportation, and just like today’s vehicles need gas stations and charging stations, horses needed water troughs to keep them going through their long journeys.
As a result, there were tons of horse and human water fountains across the city at major intersections during this time, and many of them even featured a tiny basin for dogs at their base.
Horses having a drink at a Toronto water fountain in the 1910s. Photo: Archives of Ontario.
One of the last surviving examples in Ontario still stands in St. James Park, along King Street East near Church Street.
Manufactured by the Canada Foundry Company Ltd., the cast-iron structure dates back to the late 1800s. Facing south toward King Street is a large trough once filled by two taps, offering water to horses that frequently stopped by while making deliveries or transporting passengers to the nearby St. Lawrence Market.
Fountain at the southwest corner of Parliament and Queen in 1914. Photo: City of Toronto Archives.
Humans could also use the fountain on the other, park-facing side by dipping a chain tin cup into the basin. The water run-off also pooled up in a small container at ground level for dogs or other small animals. While it might seem strange now, it wasn’t unusual to see a horse and its rider quenching their thirst at the same time.
Fountain at Queen and Broadview. Photo: City of Toronto Archives.
The fountains were once a common feature at major intersections across the city, including King and Dufferin, Bathurst and Bloor, and Kingston Road and Warden Avenue. University Avenue, in particular, was lined with them well into the 1940s, when horse-drawn deliveries were still part of daily life.
However, as indoor plumbing and public hygiene practices began to shift, shared horse and human water fountains gradually disappeared and were viewed as outdated and unsanitary.
The horse and human water fountain at St. James Park in Toronto still stands today. Photo: Google Street View.
While most have since been removed, the fountain that remains just outside of St. James Park serves as a reminder of a completely different era in Toronto’s history, and similar fountains still stand in other areas of Ontario, including Parry Sound and Orangeville, where one can be found right outside of town hall.
