I’ve always been fascinated by these street curb address tiles. Like you’ve shown here, there are still some of them in existence around town. I know there are some that can be seen in the neighborhood where Amon Carter Riverside High School is. I’m curious, though, about the horseshoe imprint on the curb’s skirt in the photo. I can plainly see the date of “1925”, and it appears that the word “CONTRACTOR” arches down on the horseshoe’s right arm. I’m going to guess that’s when the address tile was set? Thank you for this FASCINATING photograph!
Larry, the horseshoe was the symbol of concrete contractor Carl Graves in the 1920s. His company was on Grafton Street on the East Side near where the Cleburne interurban line branched off the Dallas line. If I had blown off that horseshoe first the lettering would be legible, I think. (Carl needed that horseshoe in 1931 after wife Minnie shot him in the chest.)
But the gutters and curbs may have been done at different times. The tiled street names were done in 1938-39 as a WPA project. Among the streets were Houston downtown, Odessa and Stadium near TCU, Conner and Rosedale on the East Side, Camp Bowie on the West Side, North Jones and Park streets on the North Side, Vickery, Daggett, Greene, Medford Court, and South Main on the South Side. The Fraser family plot curbing at Oakwood Cemetery also has blue tiles.
I’ve always been fascinated by these street curb address tiles. Like you’ve shown here, there are still some of them in existence around town. I know there are some that can be seen in the neighborhood where Amon Carter Riverside High School is. I’m curious, though, about the horseshoe imprint on the curb’s skirt in the photo. I can plainly see the date of “1925”, and it appears that the word “CONTRACTOR” arches down on the horseshoe’s right arm. I’m going to guess that’s when the address tile was set? Thank you for this FASCINATING photograph!
Larry, the horseshoe was the symbol of concrete contractor Carl Graves in the 1920s. His company was on Grafton Street on the East Side near where the Cleburne interurban line branched off the Dallas line. If I had blown off that horseshoe first the lettering would be legible, I think. (Carl needed that horseshoe in 1931 after wife Minnie shot him in the chest.)
But the gutters and curbs may have been done at different times. The tiled street names were done in 1938-39 as a WPA project. Among the streets were Houston downtown, Odessa and Stadium near TCU, Conner and Rosedale on the East Side, Camp Bowie on the West Side, North Jones and Park streets on the North Side, Vickery, Daggett, Greene, Medford Court, and South Main on the South Side. The Fraser family plot curbing at Oakwood Cemetery also has blue tiles.