On Thu, 10 Jun 1999, Dennis Enslinger wrote:

> I am interested in getting additional information on how other
> communities deal with brick streets.  The City of Lawrence is currently
> reviewing the existing policy. We have some streets which are currently
> overlayed with asphalt and the neighborhoods want to return to the brick
> streets.  There are some problems - the engineers are not if favor of
> this policy in addition a number of the streets would require additional
> work because of utility cuts.   I would also be interested if any one
> has information regarding the costs, short term and long term, of brick
> streets.
>
> Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  I am trying to get my
> information to support restoration of brick streets.

Momentarily forgetting you were in Kansas, I envisioned that you were
speaking of Lawrence, Massachusetts.  I didn't think of Lawrence, Kansas
as a place with a lot of brick streets.

I grew up in a community founded in 1907 which never, to my knowledge, had
any brick streets.  So my bias is to see them as antique and exotic.

On the other hand, I recall seeing an full-page ad in a 1926 trade
journal, with a photo of a busy, brick-paved intersection, and the
headline FACE THE FUTURE: PAVE WITH BRICK!  So for all I know, there may
have been routine installations of brick paving (i.e., as street paving,
not as decoration) well into the 1930s.

I have never heard of brick streets being restored by removal of later
layers of asphalt.  That would be really exciting, if it is at all
feasible.

I am always suspicious of proposals to remove and later reinstall streets
of historic brick pavers.  The brick tends to disappear from storage, or
they never actually get around to it, or somebody has a "better" idea, or
the new installation is so radically different (in levelling, placement,
etc.) that its historic character is lost.

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com