I’ve posted this one before, a long time ago; it was among my earliest entries. But when I passed it recently, the light on it was so perfect that I thought it deserved another outing. The photo, while nice, doesn’t quite get across how perfectly the shadows fell on it; in person, it caused the optical illusion that the letters were raised instead of inset.
This stamp is at the northeast corner of Prospect Street and Foster Avenue.
This one is on the south side of Bement Street between Jones and Holmes and it’s an old-timer, though it’s hard to be sure of the year. When I first saw it I thought it read 1914, which would have been the earliest Department of Public Works stamp I’d found. When I got back there to photograph it, it was in wetter conditions, and I think they made the date more legible and unfortunately revealed it to probably be 1918. It’s probably either that or 1916, but I favor 1918. Anyway, it’s quite an old one. Ones that include a month are, in my experience, always from 1924 or earlier.
The placement is a bit nontraditional. Usually the DPW stamps the month and date underneath the name, rather than side by side like this.
Here’s an old DPW stamp, on the north side of Eureka Street between Lathrop and Clifford, and for a change I can read the month on it: May.
Figuring out when they quit stamping a month with the year will be interesting. It looks like they had already quit stamping the exact date, which they did at least through most of 1918.
Well, now, look what I found on the south side of Prospect between Magnolia and Fairview – close to the corner of Prospect and Magnolia. Remember this 1918 Department of Public Works stamp from N. Fairview? I was pretty sure it said 1918, anyway, though it was very worn. I feel even more confident in that judgment now, since I have found another 1918 DPW stamp.
This one is much clearer, but the previous one gets to retain its place as the oldest I’ve found so far, since it was dated August. Still, finding another 1918 mark so soon does give me hope that I have older ones yet to find. It’s interesting that they marked not just the month but even the day. Almost all the other dated stamps I have found have only the year.
Comparing this one with the August slab yields another interesting observation. This one has month/date/year, in that order. The other had year/month/[something illegible]. I also notice the crookedness of the year. I am led to the conclusion that the month and year stamps were separate from the name stamp, and that the two workers chose to stamp them in different orders. (I am not sure if the date is a stamp or hand written; it looks disproportionately large.)
This slab is in much better condition than the Fairview one, not cracked or unduly worn. I would expect it to last decades yet to come.
Today found me walking up Fairview to find the 1924 marking my husband directed me to. I did find it – actually, there are a few – but by the time I did, I had already found something else I wanted to share today. I’ll get back to the 1924 slabs another time.
I found this on the east side of Fairview between Vine and Fernwood. It’s easy enough to read “Department of Public Works” but the line underneath is nearly worn out and obscured by plant growth. Still, that year…
It reads to me as 1918. I stopped and felt it with my fingers (I wonder if any of the neighbors were watching) and this seemed to confirm it. I can’t be sure because of how worn it is but I’m not sure I see a plausible alternate interpretation either. The rest of the bottom line is largely illegible due to the plants, which were growing through the pavement. At the time, in the sunlight, I couldn’t make anything out of it at all, but my photograph seems to reveal that the next word might be August. If I’m right, I happened to stumble upon something from another August and another pandemic.