After collecting the stamps from James Street, I decided to walk a little way and see what else I could find, since I’m not very familiar with the neighborhood. I discovered a funny little curved stub of a street called Black Court between James and Dodge River Drive. It looked like the perfect street to find old sidewalks, but as I turned the corner I saw that I was too late. The sidewalks and curbs had clearly been reconstructed at the same time as the one on James, and so all the sidewalk stamps were Martin J. Concrete 2021. These are from the north side of the street in front of the house at the dead end.
Looking at the Google Street View, I can see that the previous sidewalk did not go quite to the curb like it does now. There was a tiny lawn strip, and the sidewalk was abnormally narrow. The curbs also looked shallower. It looks like a clear improvement, yet I have to admit I’m sorry that the new sidewalk lacks certain aesthetic qualities of the old. It used to end by curving gracefully up to the front walk of this house, instead of just truncating a little past it.
