Old and New Toronto - Spadina Water Trough

Number seven in the series of old and new pictures of Toronto. The picture below is a scan of a 'Toronto Flashbacks 2' postcard noting that this is "Spadina Avenue and College Street, 1899. At one time there were dozens of these water troughs in the city for dogs, horses and (thanks to a cup on a chain) people to refresh themselves."

I had heard that there is at least one of these still around - in front of St. James Cathedral at Church and King. No idea if it is the *same* one, but I found it easily enough and it is being enjoyed mainly by pigeons now.

(I've also seen this online at http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/miscellany-toronto-photographs-then-and-now.6947/page-252 and the photo quality is much better than my scan of the postcard). Also, there was another one at Bloor and Christie at one point. And many others of course, including one by the old police station on Pape Ave just north of Queen East.

As for the original location now?

Other than the building in the center (1 Spadina Circle) which used to be the site of Knox College, not many other buildings seem to have survived, though parts of the building between the Scott Mission (to the left of the picture) and the old Knox College building might still be there. Hard to see in the picture above (you'll need to click on it to get a larger view) but there is a three story building on the corner. This picture is zoomed in and from a slightly different angle - with the building circled in red.

So I walked up to get a picture of it, and the roof line looks somewhat like the original picture anyway. The rest has obviously been reworked.