Did you know that Orlando once had a well-known “spouting well” on the south side of Lake Fairview, in the northwestern corner of town?
Large pipes were driven hundreds of feet into the ground near the lake’s edge on what was once a farm belonging to the Davis-McNeill family, that were connected to a naturally-occurring underground chamber. When the lake level was above the mouth of the pipes, it would drain into the chamber until it reached a critical pressure point, when it would then spout upwards more than 100 feet into the air as a means of controlling the flow of water further down the watershed.
The spout became a bit of a tourist attraction during the ’20s and the manager of the farm, R.D. Eunice, started collecting admission fees from curious bystanders, before being capped off for an unknown reason in the 1930s. A curator at the Orange County Regional History Center told us that it was likely due to the large number of drownings that were reported in and around the well of overly-curious spectators and bathers.
