15Sidewalk stamps, old rails and street archaeology

The short version: A sidewalk is a dated document if you know where to look. Names, years and "WPA" pressed into concrete record who poured it and when, and New Deal crews left many of these in the late 1930s.²⁷⁴ Iron boot scrapers by the door, faded ads on brick walls, granite blocks and trolley rails showing through asphalt are leftovers from the horse, streetcar and hand-painted-sign eras.^275276277 Signs saying "Private Way" or "Right to pass by permission" are legal notices about who owns the ground under your feet.²⁷⁸²⁷⁹

Why is there a name or a date stamped in the sidewalk?

What you see: A small rectangle or oval pressed into one concrete sidewalk panel, with a company name, a year, or both.

That is a contractor stamp. Private contractors in the early 20th century often pressed their name, and sometimes the year, into fresh concrete when they finished a job.²⁷⁴ The stamp works as a signature and, for later readers, as a date. If a block has panels with different stamps, you are looking at a patchwork of repairs from different years and different crews.

A stamp dates the panel it sits in, not the whole sidewalk. Neighboring panels may be older or newer, and a stamp with no year can still be dated roughly by which companies were working in a city when.

Some cities have made the stamp a rule. WUWM reported in 2016 that Milwaukee sidewalks are required to carry the installation date and the contractor's name, a practice dating to the boom in concrete sidewalks around 1900; a Milwaukee Public Museum curator said the city needed to know who built each sidewalk so it could hold contractors to repairs.²⁸⁰ In Toronto, blogTO reported in 2013 that new stamps must follow a strict set of rules on size and placement.²⁸¹

What does "WPA" stamped in the concrete mean?

What you see: A stamp reading "WPA" with a year in the late 1930s or early 1940s, sometimes with "USA" or a project number.

WPA is the Works Progress Administration, the New Deal jobs program. Its workers built many sidewalks and "often" pressed stamps into the fresh concrete, following the private contractors' habit.²⁷⁴ The Living New Deal project records surviving examples in Clayton and Tucumcari, New Mexico; Knights Landing, California (dated 1940); San Leandro, California; Warwick, Rhode Island; and New Orleans. It also lists WPA sidewalk work in Lordsburg, New Mexico (1936 and 1938) and Provo, Utah (1939), though without mentioning stamps there.²⁷⁴ In Providence, WPA plaques survive, one of them set into a manhole cover at Mount and Slater Avenues.²⁷⁴

A WPA stamp means that piece of sidewalk has carried foot traffic for more than 80 years. If you find one, the Living New Deal database is the place to check whether it is already recorded.

Why does Boston have brick sidewalks?

What you see: Red brick sidewalks, often uneven and laid in patterns, edged with long granite curbstones, in neighborhoods like Beacon Hill, the South End and Back Bay.

Brick is part of how Boston's historic neighborhoods look, and residents have defended it for a century. The Beacon Hill Civic Association formed in 1922 to oppose paving over the neighborhood's brick sidewalks.²⁸²

Brick also makes a bumpy surface, and state and ADA codes require walking surfaces without variations over a quarter inch (about 6 mm).²⁸² In 2010 the city banned "City Hall pavers," a molded brick made by Stiles and Hart of Bridgewater, and adopted a policy of "no net new brick."²⁸²

Under the city's Sidewalk Construction and Rehabilitation Standards (November 2013, revised January 2014):²⁶⁰

You can see the policy at work in individual permits. In 2013 the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission approved replacing more than 800 sq ft (about 74 m²) of brick on Joy Street with wire-cut brick for a smoother surface.²⁸³ A sidewalk application for 10 Walnut Street proposes wire-cut "Beacon Hill Blend" pavers and a granite curb to "match existing," with a 5-inch (13 cm) reveal, the height of curb face showing above the gutter.²⁸⁴

The granite has a local history. Large-scale granite quarrying in Quincy, south of Boston, began in 1825, when Solomon Willard chose West Quincy stone for the Bunker Hill Monument, and the Granite Railway was built in 1826 to haul it; the last active Quincy quarry closed in 1963.²⁸⁵ Granite was used for paving blocks and curbing across New England, especially in the 19th century.²⁸⁶ Granite is still Boston's standard curb: as of 2026 the Public Works design standards include details for resetting existing granite curb and specifications for new straight and curved granite curb.²⁸⁷

The Beacon Hill curb ramp fight

What you see: Concrete curb ramps with brick-red tactile panels at corners in the South End, Back Bay or Bay Village, and in places on Beacon Hill, older corners that have none.

In 2013 the city proposed 259 curb ramps with tactile strips on Beacon Hill.²⁶⁴ On December 19, 2013, the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission voted 3-2 to reject the plan's poured concrete ramps and plastic composite panels.²⁸³ Opponents wanted granite ramps.²⁶⁴

The city's numbers, as reported by the Boston Globe in February 2014: concrete ramps averaged about $6,000 each, granite would cost more than four times as much, and the plastic tactile strips cost about $300.²⁶⁴ The color question went back and forth. The city first proposed yellow strips, then terra cotta. Opponents would accept terra cotta only on a gray ramp, and city officials said gray gives too little contrast for people with low vision.²⁶⁴ Meanwhile the South End, Bay Village and Back Bay had already settled on concrete ramps with brick-colored strips.²⁶⁴

The dispute set two public goods against each other: a historic streetscape and access for wheelchair users and blind pedestrians. Residents and the commission argued for materials that match the district, and the city argued for cost and visibility. The federal rules behind the ramps and the bumps are explained in the curbs section.

The fight went to court. In August 2014, on the day city workers began installing the first of more than 250 ramps, the Beacon Hill Civic Association sued the city in Suffolk Superior Court, arguing that the work needed state and commission approvals it had not received.²⁸⁸ The case was settled in February 2018. Under the agreement, Public Works can keep installing ADA-compliant ramps in the district, uses red cast-iron tactile pads instead of plastic ones with the Civic Association paying the difference in cost, and presents its ramp plans for the district at least once a year.²⁸⁹

What is the metal blade next to old front steps?

What you see: A small iron blade or frame beside a front step, sometimes built into the railing or set into a niche in the wall.

That is a boot scraper, also called a door scraper, mud scraper or décrottoir. They appeared at the end of the 18th century, when streets were dirt and horse manure, and people scraped their shoes before going indoors.²⁷⁵ Some that stood out on the footpath were banned as tripping hazards and moved into niches in the facade, and many were later removed or salvaged for scrap. Well-known examples survive at 10 Downing Street in London, Goethe's house in Weimar and in Greenwich Village.²⁷⁵

In Boston, "most historic houses" on Beacon Hill have one.²⁷⁵ Locals call them "mudders." Examples include 54 Pinckney Street, where Nathaniel Hawthorne roomed around 1840; 98 Pinckney; 50 Chestnut Street, the Francis Parkman house (1824); 46 Chestnut (early 1900s); 1 Louisburg Square, where the scraper is built into the railing; and 11 West Cedar Street.²⁹⁰

Why are blue mailboxes disappearing?

What you see: A blue US Postal Service collection box with a curved top on a corner, or a patch of newer concrete where one used to stand.

The first cast-iron street collection boxes were mounted on light posts in Boston, Philadelphia and New York in the 1850s, and the boxes "weren't always blue."²⁹¹ Their number has fallen sharply because the Postal Service removes boxes that collect little mail. A 1974 guideline said boxes averaging fewer than 25 pieces a day should be considered for removal.²⁹¹ Boxes have also shifted from residential corners toward business districts.²⁹²

The counts do not agree between sources. One report puts the peak at 365,000 boxes in 2000 and just under 154,000 by 2015.²⁹¹ Another says about 218,000 had been removed since 1985, leaving just under 177,000 in September 2009.²⁹² Those figures do not fit together cleanly, so treat them as approximate. Both describe the same trend: well over half the boxes are gone.

Removals became news in 2020. After photos of removed boxes spread on social media, USPS paused removals until after the November election.²⁹¹

In California, a white curb next to a mailbox lets drivers stop to deposit mail.²⁵⁰

According to Wikipedia's history of post boxes, US collection boxes were first painted red or green, switched to dark green in 1909 to avoid confusion with fire equipment, and turned olive drab after World War I, when the Army donated surplus paint. In 1955 they became red, white and blue, and in 1971 the new Postal Service adopted the dark blue used today.²⁹³

What does a "Private Way" sign mean in Boston?

What you see: A street sign or homemade sign reading "Private Way," sometimes "Private Way - Dangerous - Pass at your own risk," usually on a narrow side street.

In Boston, a private way is a street the city has not accepted as public. On a private way, residents are responsible for all street and sidewalk maintenance and for clearing snow. The city may plow in emergencies "at their discretion," collects trash only if city vehicles can safely get in and out, and maintains only "accessible" city-owned streetlights. Owners set and enforce parking.²⁷⁸ The Public Works Department's "street book" records whether a given street is public or private.²⁷⁸

The sign does two jobs: it warns drivers and walkers that the city does not maintain the surface, and it asserts the owners' rights over the way. If a pothole on a private way needs fixing, the neighbors fix it. For reporting problems on public streets, see How a City Works: 311.

What does "Right to pass by permission" mean?

What you see: A small brass plaque in the pavement or a sign at a walkway or plaza entrance reading "Right to pass by permission and subject to control of owner" or "Private property."

These notices exist because of the prescriptive easement: in many US states, if the public openly crosses private land for long enough without permission, it can gain a legal right to keep crossing. A posted notice turns the crossing into permitted use, which stops that clock.

The wording depends on the state. In California, Civil Code Section 1008 signs read "Right to pass by permission and subject to control of owner: Section 1008, Civil Code." The owner must post them at each entrance, or at intervals of no more than 200 feet (61 m).²⁷⁹

Massachusetts does it differently. Under General Laws chapter 187, section 3, an owner can prevent anyone from gaining an easement by use by posting notice "in a conspicuous place upon the premises for six successive days," or by serving notice on specific people. A certificate is then recorded at the registry of deeds within three months.²⁹⁴ So in Boston, the legal act is the posting and the recording, and a permanent plaque is not required by that statute.

What are the faded painted ads on old brick walls?

What you see: Faded lettering on an old brick wall advertising a product, store or hotel long gone, sometimes with two or three older ads showing through each other.

These are ghost signs: hand-painted wall advertisements that have weathered, or that reappeared when a neighboring building or billboard came down. A UK lettering studio's history says British examples are mainly 20th-century. They were painted in oil-based paint with hog's-hair brushes, and the designs were often transferred to the wall by "pouncing," dabbing powder through a perforated paper pattern. Billboards placed over them later protected some from the weather.²⁷⁶

"Ghost sign" is a recent term. A wall where layers of lettering overlap is called a palimpsest, a usage credited to Bob Allen. Ghost signs usually have no legal protection, so they disappear when walls are repainted or demolished.²⁷⁶

In the US the painters were called "wall dogs," and painted wall ads were most common in the decades before the Great Depression, according to Wikipedia's summary of reporting in the New York Times (2005) and the Star-Ledger (2012). The signs were painted in oil-based house paint that most likely contains lead, which helps it stay stuck to the brick.²⁹⁵

In Boston, city officials do not formally track ghost signs but estimate there are hundreds, according to WBUR in May 2026. That year a faded sign for the lumber firm Holt & Bugbee at 90 Canal Street in the West End was repainted, paid for by the company ($51,000) with the West End Museum as a partner; the same wall carries older lettering for J.F. Folsom Wholesale Confectioner and Bossom and Cuff Parlor Furniture.²⁹⁶

Why are there old trolley tracks showing through the road?

What you see: Pairs of steel rails, or the outline of them, showing through cracked asphalt or exposed in a roadwork trench, on a street with no trolley service.

These are streetcar rails left in place when a line switched to buses. Rails were often paved over rather than dug up, so they stay buried until a utility crew cuts a trench (see work zones) or the asphalt wears thin.

Two local cases show the pattern. In June 2016, tracks uncovered under Arsenal Street in Watertown belonged to the Watertown Square-Central Square line, whose last trolley ran on June 16, 1950. The local paper reported that they "will likely be removed."²⁷⁷ In Roslindale, tracks were exposed on South Street on August 1, 2014, in front of Wallpaper City, and a 1948 city archives photo shows the tracks.²⁹⁷

For how Boston's transit network grew and shrank, see How a City Works: transit.

Is that cobblestone or Belgian block?

What you see: A street, gutter strip or crosswalk paved with granite blocks, bumpy underfoot, sometimes peeking out where asphalt has worn away.

Almost always, what people call cobblestones are setts: broadly rectangular stones quarried and worked into shape, usually granite. A cobblestone is a small, naturally rounded rock. Setts gave horses grip on hills, and in the US they are also called Belgian block.²⁹⁸

New York's history shows the switch. Cobblestone, untooled and rounded, was used there until about 1860. Belgian block, tooled granite, was introduced in 1852 and became general after 1859. The "Manhattan standard" block of about 4 by 7 inches (10 by 18 cm) dates from 1912 to 1938. Whether the stone really came from Belgium is "unclear."²⁹⁹ US sett streets survive in the West Village, SoHo and TriBeCa in New York, Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia, Shockoe Slip in Richmond and Fells Point in Baltimore.²⁹⁸ A common story says such stones arrived as ship ballast. In Portland, Oregon, at least, the blocks are local basalt, not ballast.²⁹⁸

In Boston

Boston rewards a slow walk. On Beacon Hill, look for boot scrapers at many older front steps and wire-cut brick replacing older, rougher brick.²⁷⁵²⁸³ At corners in the South End, Back Bay and Bay Village, the brick-red tactile panels on concrete ramps are the result of the city's historic-district rule.²⁶⁴ Some of the first US street collection boxes went up in Boston in the 1850s.²⁹¹ Trolley rails have resurfaced in Roslindale and in neighboring Watertown.²⁹⁷²⁷⁷ And on narrow side streets, a "Private Way" sign means the neighbors, not the city, own the plowing.²⁷⁸

Elsewhere in the world

Boot scrapers are an 18th- and 19th-century habit on both sides of the Atlantic, from London to Weimar.²⁷⁵ British ghost signs are mostly 20th-century and rarely protected.²⁷⁶ Legal notices against public rights of way vary by state even within the US, as the California and Massachusetts rules show.²⁷⁹²⁹⁴ In the UK, the charity mySociety runs FixMyStreet, which lets people send street problems to their council almost anywhere in the country. As of July 2015 reports went to councils as plain-text emails or through the Open311 standard, and 10 of about 430 councils refused them.³⁰⁰

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