Detroit, Michigan Maintains a Drinking Fountain for Horses 100 Years After They Disappeared from City Streets

Other than for a parade or law enforcement activity, think of the last time you saw a horse on a city street anywhere. Let alone a residential street in a major American city. But that's exactly the scenario an active horse drinking fountain in Detroit is waiting for.

Located in the city's Midtown neighborhood between the Lodge and Chrysler Freeways is the Canfield Historic District. The single block of Canfield Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets sits like a neighborhood out of another era. The street is linked with small paving squares and antique homes.

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A historic markers at the entrance to the block notes:

All the houses in the district were built in the 1870 through the 1890s. The elaborate houses, with ornately carved wood and stone trim, reflect a variety of architectural styles including Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire and Queen Anne....Maty of Detroit's most prominent attorneys, physicals, dentists and architects owned homes on West Canfield.

The bourgeoisie of the era would have used horses as transportation hence the horse drinking fountain - trough feels too utilitarian and doesn't quite convey the lost history of this elegantly modest bubbler.

In the era of the West Canfield homes, Detroit was said to have

Total of fifty in use in 1900. For nearly 200 years the only means of transportation on the streets of Detroit was a horse. In 1837 Detroit had four livery stables for horses. In 1860 the Detroit Waterworks survey of the city listed 17 stables. By 1894 it had risen to 82 stables and about 12,000 horses on the streets. By the end of the 1920s, aside from a few peddlers, milk trucks and fire wagons, the horse vanished from the city.

A photo of a rescued horse drinking fountain is on Pinterest.

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Here's a non-horse view of the fountain, actively bubbling water, captured on Google Street View:

It's incredible to consider this piece of infrastructure from centuries gone by still hangs on and is obviously maintained by the city of Detroit even if the likely only customers these days are birds and the very occasional visit from the Detroit Mounted Police.