My husband and I go for a long walk around our north Willow Glen neighborhood almost every evening. After years of covering the same ground, I noticed the wide variety and age of signs and marks under foot. A humble history is written in the pavement.
First are the concrete marks – impressions indicating what company installed the sidewalk and what year they did it. All of the marks seem to be dated between 1940 and 1967. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) put in the oldest walks during the Great Depression, followed by contract concrete companies during the 1950s and 1960s. Newer sidewalks are not so marked.
The Willow Glen community centers around Lincoln Avenue (one of the regular areas where we walk), renamed in 1865 after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Willow Glen voted to become part of San Jose in 1936 but still has its own newspapers, community blog, Founders Day parade and other unique events.
On our walks I see many pavement service covers (manhole covers, water and telephone access plates, drain grates, etc.) that are marked not only with their function but who made them and where they were made. Some are brass or steel, some concrete, some are made of plastic resin. Some designs are ornate but others are very plain. All of the marked locations are either in the local San Francisco Bay Area (Oakland, San Francisco, Los Gatos, or San Jose, California) or very far away (China, India, Mexico). Technology generations are represented by Bell System (defunct company), Pacific Telephone (defunct company), SBC (defunct company), Broadband…
Come walk with me to see this strange collection…
| WPA 1940 Concrete Mark  |
WPA 1941 Concrete Mark  |
A.A. Lopez 1954 Concrete Mark  |
| N.R. Esparza Contractor 1955 Concrete Mark  |
M. Padia Cement Contractor 1956 Concrete Mark  |
M. A. Preble Contractor 1956 Concrete Mark  |
| Silvery Tersini Driveways Streamlined 1958 Mark  |
A.L. Bynum 1959 Concrete Mark  |
James Griffiths 1960 Concrete Mark  |
| Lloyd Newgren Contractor 1965 Concrete Mark  |
A&B Concrete Const. 1967 Concrete Mark  |
volunteer shoe, hand, dog marks on concrete  |
| Brooks Products Oakland Water Meter  |
San Jose Foundary San Jose, Cal drain grate  |
G.R. Bothwell San Jose Calif drain grate  |
| Voltage PG&E Forni Corp  |
Keystone Los Gatos Bell System access cover  |
Christy Pacific Telephone access cover  |
hand welded SBC telephone access cover  |
welded Broadband CCP access cover  |
| India drain grate  |
Sanitary Sewer China manhole cover  |
Art Concrete Wks Oakland Patented Water Meter cover  |
San Jose Water Works access cover  |
| American Brass and Iron Foundary Storm Sewer manhole cover Oakland, California  |
Sewer SBF Mexico manhole cover  |
Street Washer Lawn Cock Mfg by M. Greenberg’s Sons S.F. Cal access cover  |
Painted curb notice with fish (next to drain grates)
No Dumping Hotline 945-3000 – Flows to Guadalupe River
Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson
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A.L. Bynum was my grandfsther.. My father’s father.. my father died when I was seven, I am now 51.. after my father died, my mother took me away, and I never got to know that side of the family… growing up in San Jose Cal. I have seen my grandfather’s name everywhere on city sidewalks, and also mine… I would like to know more about my grandfather and his buisness