Lakewood Lore

From bygone days comes watery tale

Horse troughs, made of concrete and looking like bathtubs, once were spaced along the curbsides of Lakewood's main streets.

They were a convenience provided by the city, which kept them full and otherwise maintained them, according to Vernon Lieblein, Lakewood old-timer whose father headed our water department in the early days.

"They were handy, especially for dray horses, who always seemed to know where the water was when they came near it," Lieblein, 88, recalls.

But all kind of horses used them because everything in pre-car Lakewood was horse drawn--winter sleighs for visiting, ice, bakery, fruits and vegetables, department store deliveries, and rubbish and garbage pickup, as well as such heavy items as fire equipment, bricks, sand and beer barrels.

How did the troughs work? Well, each had an enclosed compartment at one end with a tank ball similar to that in a toilet. As water entered from the bottom, via a hookup with city pipes, the tank ball would rise, shutting off an intake valve when the trough was full.

Lieblein remembers various trough sites--one on the west side of Warren just south of Detroit; on the south side of Detroit l00 feet west of Warren; beside Cook's Grocery on the north side of Detroit at Grace; at Madison and Warren; and on the north side of Madison between Grace and Cohassett.

With the advent of the automobile, the equine drinking places disappeared. That is, all except one.

Lakewood's last remaining horse trough is situated on a tree lawn at the corner of Clifton and West Clifton. However, now it is filled with soil and used as a planter.

Michael P. Stasko, who retired two years ago as meter-reader foreman after 42 years with the water department, recollects the Clifton trough once being taken out, but returned after neighbors objected to its removal.

Be that as it may, the trough was in place as a planter in 1955 when the John E. Wades moved into the home at 18097 Clifton Road beside which the relic stands. For 16 years, Mrs. Wade (Marie) kept a watchful eye over it.

"In the early '60s when the Clifton bridge was being built across Rocky River, I got out and watched that the workmen would not disturb it," she said.

"I remember about that time somebody even writing a poem in a Clifton Park neighborhood newspaper about how the trough would be sorely missed if it were taken out."

Today, Cassandra Horton, one of the home's current occupants, decorates the soil-filled trough in the summer with salmon-pink geraniums and a double border of white alyssum and blue ageratum.

She's fond of the landmark and believes it has remained through the years "probably because people felt it's not fair to take away history."

This article appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post March 22, 1990. Reprinted with permission.

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