Horse Trough at 315 S 9th St
A Horse Trough at 315 S 9th St in Philadelphia is made of granite. It is one of five horse troughs listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.[1]
History[edit]
The fountain on 9th Street near Clinton was installed by the Womens Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (WPSPCA) as part of a charitable reform effort to provide water and was inscribed: "A MERCIFUL MAN IS MERCIFUL TO HIS BEAST". An inscription on the other side commemorates the prominent Quaker and abolitionist Edward Wetherill (1820–1908).
Beginning in the 1860s, multiple reform-minded progressive organizations in Philadelphia built and maintained public drinking fountains as street furniture for “the health and refreshment of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, and for the benefit of the animals used by them,”[2] with overlapping motivations including public health concerns, the temperance movement, and animal welfare.
Two of these organizations were the Pennsylvania branch of the newly formed American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals co-founded in June 1868 by Colonel Mark Richards Muckle of the Public Ledger, and the Philadelphia Fountain Society, organized and funded by Wilson Cary Swann.[3] As of September 1869 press reports claimed "a very commendable rivalry in the erection of drinking fountains for man and beast will spring up between those two admirable associations", the Fountain Society with twelve in operation so far, and the PSPCA credited with five, all fountains which had "proven their utility and absolute necessity" with more to come.[4] Some of these featured a curb-level trough for small animals, and a separate drinking fountain for people.
Also in 1869 the activist Caroline Earle White had grown frustrated with her exclusion from any decision-making role in the PSPCA, which she had helped to found. She created a Woman's Branch, which also independently commissioned the construction of public drinking fountains and horse troughs. (In 1899 White fully broke away from the PSPCA by founding the Women’s Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or WPSPCA.) The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was also involved.
As of 1880, the Philadelphia Fountain Society recorded 50 fountains serving approximately three million people and one million horses and other animals. A survey of the humane movement published in 1910 reported that the WPSPCA maintained twenty-two fountains in the city. Eventually the PSPCA assumed management of the Philadelphia Fountain Society’s fountains.
Reformers continued installing such fountains throughout the city into the 1940s.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Interiors,Objects,Structures, and Sites Listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places" (PDF). Philadelphia Historical Commission. September 20, 2019. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
- ↑ Ashley Hahn (May 29, 2013). "Curbside refreshment for man and beast". WHYY. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
- ↑ Double, Bill. "A Modest Fountain on the Square". Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
- ↑ "Letter from Philadelphia". Tunkhannock (Pennsylvania) Republican (via newspapers.com). 9 September 1869. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
External links[edit]
- Water Trough & Fountain, Ninth Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA - Historical American Buildings Survey (HABS PA,51-PHILA,668), Library of Congress
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