Laura St. History?

[videojon]

I took these pics on my lunch break. The first one clearly shows some bricks under the layers of torn asphault. I'm not sure what that would date back to. The second picture could very well show something modern, but I have no idea. It's the brick circular opening in the middle. Maybe it was just where a manhole was but it looks like all the other manhole covers are still intact.

[Miss Fixit]

Wonder what the city plans to do with those beautiful old bricks?

I just heard a gruesome story from a contractor who wanted to save some that surfaced during a JEA project.  He told me that JEA insisted that he dispose of them in dumpsters that were heading to a landfill!  And we are talking about thousands of them....

[subro]

What is ironic is that I saw them carefully pulled up all of the bricks from in front of the landing and place them on pallets for reuse.

[fieldafm]

I have some bricks in my backyard and driveway that from my understanding once ran along with streetcar system in Ortega.

I would love to get some bricks from Laura Street if a contracter is dumping them in a landfill.  I could make excellent use of them!

[samiam]

I believe most people know the value of these bricks now. I think most of the bricks the city removes end up at BURKHALTER WRECKING INC. They have thousands of them there.

[fieldafm]

Thanks Samian!
Im going to check that place out.  Just lurking on their website it seems they have some cool stuff.

[Dog Walker]

And they think that anything you are interested in is made of gold.

[Captain Zissou]

I have some bricks in my backyard and driveway that from my understanding once ran along with streetcar system in Ortega.

I would love to get some bricks from Laura Street if a contracter is dumping them in a landfill.  I could make excellent use of them!

What do your bricks say on them?? I think my sister's house has a bunch of them as well.  Her's say Augusta ... something on them. 

[samiam]

Some of the pavers used in Jacksonville are Augusta block, southern paver. reynolds, graves and a few that say catskill.

[samiam]

If you like antique bricks this is a cool sight.

http://nellsstuff.homestead.com/oldbricks.html

I want one of the dont spit on the sidewalk bricks

[fieldafm]

I have some bricks in my backyard and driveway that from my understanding once ran along with streetcar system in Ortega.

I would love to get some bricks from Laura Street if a contracter is dumping them in a landfill.  I could make excellent use of them!

What do your bricks say on them?? I think my sister's house has a bunch of them as well.  Her's say Augusta ... something on them. 

I want to say Reynolds and Graves.  I'll take a look tonight. 

[fieldafm]

I took a look-see in the yard:

-Graves Bham, ALA
-Augusta
-Augusta Block
-Reynolds Block
-Southern Clay MFG CO
-Catskill Block
-Mack Manuf Co.
-Ragland Block

Most are Graves and Augusta, but all 8 of these bricks are either used in the yard/driveway or are piled up in my garage.

[samiam]

Brick collecting

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/08/27/loc_oh-brickcollector27.html

One of his favorites is a brick that has the engraved warning: "Don't spit on the sidewalk."

He said a doctor from Cincinnati moved west in the 1800s and persuaded the legislators in a western state to outlaw spitting on the sidewalk because of the diseases it spread. These bricks were made to drive the message home

BTW my front step and walkway is made from antique pavers

[LPBrennan]

Electric manholes are, for the most part, under the sidewalks downtown, since the service to buildings there came from the manhole. At one time there were as many as six between corners. The large rectangular holes with grating are transformer vaults. These have sumps and pumps to keep them dry- the transformers are called submersible and could operate under water, but air is better at dispersing heat! When the transformer is removed, the pump is, as well, and some of these holes fill with water. At one time there was a large substation at the foot of Laura Street, and earlier, a ship moored there to provide power, too. The west side of Laura south of Bay had an enormous manhole with many ducts, once needed for the substation. The only place the JEA had significant duct and manholes in the street was on Laura between Adams and Monroe. The basement of the old title building extended out under the sidewalk, so when the lines were put underground starting about 1914, there was no place for the ducts except in the middle of the street. Until recently there was a steel cover in the sidewalk, through which coal for the building's boiler was delivered. (I was in the basement of that building around 1990- there was still coal in the pile beside the long-dead boiler.)
Most other places where electric manholes are in the street were caused by the street being widened and the old sidewalk removed. There are manholes like this on State and Union, also on the east side of Lee between Bay and Forsyth. These are distribution manholes- the system that delivers primary (13,200 volts downtown) or secondary (120/208) directly to customers. There are underground transmission lines between substations, but these run in the middle of the street as there is no reason for them to be near buildings.
At one time there were still small manholes and duct bank down the middle of Main Street. These belonged to the Jacksonville Traction Company. When the streetcars were abandoned, these may have been used by the city electric department. I don't know; but when I worked at JEA they were still shown on the maps and there were old drawings showing them. As work was done, they were removed or filled with concrete.

[urbanlibertarian]

Very interesting.  Thanks, LP.