The most ornate drinking fountain in the city features a bust of Chief Si’ahl (Chief Seattle) and hasn’t run with water in years. Originally unveiled in 1909, with a three-tiered system of sanitary water for humans, horses, and dogs, it now sits in Pioneer Square, serving only aesthetic purposes.

The slightly less artistic cast-iron drinking fountain at the corner of Greenwood Avenue N and N 85th Street runs equally dry. At the side of the swoopy-edged silver bowl at the top sits only a hole where the spigot should be. The elegant design implies origins in an age when things were built both to last and with a bit of flair, though it doesn’t quite live up to The Seattle Daily Times’ plea for new fountains in 1923: “Seattle with its incomparable crystal water could have fountains bubbling in its open places, with striking heroes, or symbolic figures enthroned as masters of the scene.”

For more than a century, citizens have been badgering the city about its water fountains with the same messages on repeat: There are not enough, the ones we have are too ugly, they don’t work, and they are gross. Somewhere in the late 1930s, at least, people stopped complaining about the lack of horse drinking fountains (dog drinking fountains have been a primary concern since the beginning). 

The design of Seattle’s on-street public water fountains, like the one in Greenwood, dates to at least the 1920s—though not all of the fountains themselves date back nearly that far. In front of the QFC grocery store in Wallingford, for example, a version of that fountain—with an added lower bowl for dogs, much like the Chief—was donated by the North Central Seattle Chamber of Congress in 1975.

Seattle Public Utilities operates these fountains. As of the agency’s last public statement, an image file of a Google Map, there were 27 of them. That was 2021, and, at that point, SPU said all functioned.

But thirsty citizens will find a far larger number of fountains in the city are run by Seattle Parks and Recreation. While those lack the old-school elegance of the street fountains, SPR keeps a frequently updated interactive data map of its 213 water fountains, including which ones are currently out of order (none, as of this writing).

The good news is that both departments imply that using the city’s Find it, Fix it app will get infrastructure onto the list for repair. The bad news is that the thirsty folks on the Burke-Gilman at 30th Avenue NE or at 43rd and Madison, among other spots, just must hope those fountains keep working, as neither agency claims them on their map.