these are my favorite. old granite curbs. theres a few streets with these in the neighboring town, and also in a larger extremely old town on the coast there are a ton of these as well as sidewalks made of octagonal stones.
Drool.... I'm sure that's quite attractive too! Also, I notice that the grass is very even with the curb. Little to no buil-up=original grass
I'm having an issue loading all the photos I wanted, so we will make do with what we have.
As mentioned above when a building makes it into the National Register of Historic Places it is almost always given a placard that represents that. I am always on the look out for such placards
This next picture will be kind of 1 small part and then a larger part
Notice the size of these tree's... BIG for a curb strip. Because those trees are there, I know that at SOME point an old house sat near it. (In this case this is in front of the Sims House built in 1886) Also, because those tree's are there I know that that strip is just about as original as they come.
What you don't see in the picture too clearly is that the sidewalk is rather ratty and pushed up like this
Not the same house or curb strip, but similar sized tree and it shows what to look for. When you see a sidewalk like this, look to your immediate left and hope there is grass on the field. This sidewalk has probably taken DECADES for this size tree to have pushed up this sidewalk from its roots. Exposed roots, pushed up sidewalks, heavily cracked sidewalks, brick sidewalks, ALL good indicators that this sidewalk has been around longer than others may think.
Another thing to look for was mentioned above and that's dates on the curb or brass tags that have the date. In our town we don't have these per say, but we do have our "original" street names etched into the beginning and end of each curb like so
Now this doesn't mean much to those that aren't sure what to look for (how does a name work better than a date? It doesn't), but if you notice the grain of the cement used again, you will see that it is much more coarse than you would see on a sidewalk that was laid down last week. The more coarse the older it is until you get to bricks or dirt. Also notice the sections it's cut in. Much larger than they would be if they were to replace it tomorrow. Again, look at those cracks! That's not from just 1 fat baby stroller, but decades worth of fat baby strollers!
This is the same Sims house curb from the other side. Notice the erosion happening in the corner of the curb? That's not from a meter being put in (checked to make sure) that's because that curb is original grass and it's seen some action. Those 4 huge tree's are keeping that curb from having sod laid down like they did in sections of the yard (not sure why just sections)
Tomorrow we talk sprinklers and angles
I love it.
I'm going to try this out on my next trip somewhere.
