Having received some good information on materials to use for brick streets in another thread I decided to check out some real brick streets. The town of Mt. Vernon, OH is about 10 miles from where I live and the area just east of downtown has been designated a National Historic District. Lots of great old homes that I’m guessing were built in the early 1900s or even the late 1800s. Vine St. is one of the streets that runs east out of downtown and it has kept its brick paving so it is a good source for some prototype information.
The first thing I noticed was that the long side of the bricks was perpenicular to the direction of the traffic. I don’t know why but I would have thought it would run parallel. The side streets off of Vine are also brick paved and also have their long side perendicular to the direction of traffic. The curious thing is what was done at the intersections of these streets. The bricks were laid in a herringbone pattern diagonal to the bricks from either street. I wondered if this was the norm for brick street intersections. I went online looking for pictures of brick streets and found another example of where a herringbone pattern was used but the bricks were not diagonal to the adjoining streets.
Another thing I notices is that instead of concrete curbs, cut stone was used and it was about 8 inches high. The brick pavers went right to the edge of the curbs. Looking at online pictures I saw some examples of this but also examples of concrete curbes with a narrow strip of concrete between the bricks and the curb.
One of the most curious things I noticed was that I didn’t see any storm sewers. There were a few manholes in the center of the street but I drove the length of the brick paving, about 6-9 blocks and didn’t see a single one. Right at the end just where the pavement switched to asphalt there was a storm sewer on either side of the street. Did brick streets not need storm sewers. Did rainwater simple leech through the bricks ma
The things we think of normal now, just didn’t exist or was rare at that time. Pick a date, how about 1896 (I know alot about things then), only the rich at that time (for the most part) had indoor plumbing, outhouses were the norm, indoor faucets, what were those, a luxury of the rich. Brings up an interesting thing, for the most part back then that the things the poor have now and are considered normal, only the rich had back then.
The bricks are laid in the direction they are to provide traction. To provide this traction in an intersection the bricks have to go both directions. Before someone decided to put bricks on that road it was a dirt road. Only modern roads have drains. Water was just expected to run off into a ditch on it’s own. They were just happy it wasn’t a mud bog when it rained.
Concrete gutters are a modern thing also. They go hand in hand with drains, as they are part of that system. If you see brick roads with concrete gutters that is a modern road trying to look old. An example of this is the Champs-Élysées in Paris where the Tour de France finishes. I’ve seen lots of riders use the concrete gutter trying to avoid the bumpy bricks.
I hadn’t thought of the traction issue but it makes perfect sense. Since I posted this I have since found more photos and a diagonal herringbone pattern in intersections seems to be the norm. I’m sure based on the size and style of the homes in the area this is where the well to do people lived. Not that it matters to my modeling but I’m curious if the stone curbs and sidewalks were put in at the same time as the brick paving. Another thing I noticed that I didn’t mention in the OP was there are a number of low spots in the brick. The intersections are low because Vine St. is crowned so the edges are lower than the middle. But there are other places where the brick has sunk, probably due to the same thing that causes potholes in modern pavement. I guess I need to decide how distressed to make my streets.