when companies are contracted by the city to demolish and replace structurally unsound vaulted sidewalks, their saw-cutting methods typically go beyond the curb and well into the street. the work continues with subsequent digging in and around the street, involving the removal of several inches of asphalt followed by older concrete and finally, well-preserved 19th or early 20th century fired red brick or granite pavers that are typically discarded as "waste."

during one of these jobs, when an observant contractor looked closely at several pavers that had fallen into a vault during another routine sidewalk upgrade, he realized that the blocks were comprised of wood, which was a very unusual, considering that he had been doing this work for several years and had never come across anything like this before. with his curiosity now piqued, he returned to the street and removed additional debris and tar from the section he had been working on. there, he discovered, or rather uncovered many more of these seldom found creosoted or wood-tar cedar wood pavers, that likely were installed sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century.

the area exposed was approximately 10 feet in length and consisted of three rows of pavers running vertically (parallel with the curb). the majority of pavers in this region were badly damaged. when the pattern or configuration turned diagonal, running outward or deeper into the street, the condition of the wood pavers greatly improved; more likely than not, the diagonal region had greater protection with layer after layer added over the years. a section of these pavers were carefully removed and set aside for me to investigate and ultimately purchase when brought to the shop. i truly felt that discovering wood pavers would have been a long shot since we both agreed that red brick or cobblestone (with or without street track) was the common find on these jobsites. nonetheless, i told the veteran contractor, who had previously sold me cast iron and glass lens vault lights, about my interest in wood pavers, and if ever was to come across them, to contact me at once.

since the job entailed replacing the sidewalk, with only limited exposure to the actual street, approximately 75 blocks were recovered intact with residual asphalt painstakingly removed to fully expose every side of the very dense and heavy tar-laden bricks. some will be donated to various institutions (including the bldg. 51 museum), while the remainder will be available for purchase in "as found" condition. images in the gallery component of this blog post show a small sampling of the salvaged wooden blocks after being lightly cleaned and/or dissected to determine the level of tar saturation used in any given block.

all imagery of the street blocks "in situ" were taken by the contractor while onsite. when i was given access to the cellphone images, i altered them to highlight the pavers in their original configuration and location in relation to the curb and so on.

aside from this extraordinary find, the only other documented example of wood pavers existing in chicago (that is, to my knowledge) is the paved alley (built between october 29 and november 23rd of 1909), located on north avenue between astor and state streets. the extant alley was placed on the national register of historic places in 2002 and in the summer of 2011, was completely restored. however, only a small fraction of the original cedar pavers were saved due to extensive damage from prolonged exposure to the elements and virtually no maintenance. so in actuality, the majority of the pavers had to be recreated and reinstalled to coexist with the 1909 pavers deemed salvageable.

when chicago was incorporated in 1837, the city streets consisted of either dirt or an ever-changing experimentation with crude wood planks that often fell into rapid disrepair time and again. by the mid-19th century, chicago became the first western city to usher in samuel nicolson's patented wood paving system, which consisted of a "checkerboard" arrangement of creosote cedar wood blocks resting on both tar and gravel with a foundation comprised of tar-soaked wood planks. cresote (no longer used due to its toxicity) is a coal-tar derivative designd to make the wood blocks "waterproof" or prevent moisture from causing wood rot.

by 1891, more than half of chicago's city streets were utilizing wood pavers on approximately 774 miles of roads running in all directions across the increasingly dense urban landscape.

interestingly, despite the widespread destruction left by the great chicago fire of 1871, the wood paved street system remained mostly intact, despite numerous accounts that suggested the overwhelming presence of wood-framed structures and wood block streets were factors in fueling the fire. nevertheless, wood pavers won out and continued to be used long after the flames were put out.

despite the fact that cobblestone pavers were judged to be far more superior and much more durable and/or resistant to the elements, the primary factor in the continued existence of wood pavers boiled down to economics, which involved the highly profitable late 19th century chicago lumber market, where wood was plentiful and cheap. in addition, the cedar wood blocks were preferred over the granite cobblestones because they were less noisy (no "clickety-clack" from the horse's wrought iron foot gear) and much easier on the feet of people and animals alike.

the use and/or production of wood pavers began to fall out of favor during the first half of the 20th century, when chicago and nearby cities exhausted the forests of wisconsin, michigan, minnesota and other midwestern regions resulting in greatly increased prices for lumber. by the 1930's the overall cost to install a wood block street was much greater than using asphalt.

despite the complete disappearance of wood pavers on modern day city streets (with the exception of the extant and completely exposed landmarked alley), i suspect several extant and well-preserved wood-paved streets are simply buried under many layers of asphalt added time and again since the depression or perhaps earlier. more of these streets will likely be discovered over time. i'm just pleased that i happened to be at the right place at the right time when an observant contractor who made the extra effort to discover and save what otherwise would have been discarded brought these remarkable wood pavers to me to fully document and share my findings with others interested in the historical significance or evolution of chicago's infrastructure, etc.