Horton Plaza Park and the Broadway Fountain

Horton Plaza Park and the Broadway Fountain
Broadway between Third and Fourth avenues, Downtown San Diego

Designed by renowned San Diego architect Irving J. Gill and completed in 1910, Horton Plaza is one of San Diego’s oldest civic landmarks. Its fountain, with a distinctive glass-and-bronze dome and inscription, “Broadway Fountain for the People,” has stood at the center of the plaza for more than a century.

The fountain has also been at the center of SOHO’s own history. Beginning in the 1970s, SOHO fought repeated proposals to alter, relocate, or eliminate the innovative, electrified historic fountain to prevent substantially changing the plaza’s character. In the early 1980s, when plans for downtown redevelopment threatened Horton Plaza’s historic integrity, SOHO and its allies developed an alternative, preservation-minded plan. Rather than opposing redevelopment outright, preservationists demonstrated that the plaza could be rehabilitated while retaining its historic character.

The effort succeeded. Horton Plaza was restored, and in 1985 the City of San Diego rededicated the historic park.

But the fountain would need saving again. Three decades after the rededication, including years of deterioration and disuse, the park and fountain were restored as part of a $17 million public-private project. The newly restored Horton Plaza Park reopened in 2016, with the Broadway Fountain flowing again and shining like a beacon at night. At the time, SOHO celebrated the major project as an important preservation achievement and recognized the City of San Diego, Civic San Diego, and Westfield with the People In Preservation - Partners in Preservation Award.

This history of steadfast preservation advocacy gives SOHO an extraordinary record of continuity, a 50-year preservation story in one prominent resource.

Today, however, the Broadway Fountain is again in jeopardy the victim of yet another period of neglect. The plaza has been fenced off and the public kept out, while the historic fountain deteriorates and remains nonfunctional. After all the significant public and private investment and sustained preservation efforts to restore Gill’s nationally important design, it is truly unacceptable that Horton Plaza and the Broadway Fountain have fallen into dysfunction and decay for a fourth time.

SOHO is calling for the City to take responsibility and properly maintain, restore, and protect this defining civic landmark, and reopen it to the public.

What You Can Do
Write or call elected City officials, the mayor, and your councilmember with your concerns about Horton Plaza Park and the Broadway Fountain.

2026

The park and fountain as they appear today, fenced off from the public. Courtesy Google street view, April 2026

Horton Plaza Park and Broadway Fountain as they appeared in 2017, following their restoration through one of the most significant public-private preservation partnerships involving the City of San Diego, Civic San Diego, and Westfield LLC. Photo by Sandé Lollis