History underfoot
Submitted by Sammy Smith (sammy@thesga.org)
Before there was blacktop, some streets were paved with stone or brick. East of Piedmont Park, in Atlanta, is a street that still is paved with bricks. It’s named Cooledge Avenue, and is marked on the map below.
Most of the bricks are plain, but a few are not. This paving brick has letters molded into its surface. They say COPELAND-INGLIS arched across the top of the brick, and B HAM ALA in a straight line across the bottom, when the brick is held sideways. Apparently, Copeland-Inglis shipped bricks across the Southeast. They were used in Chattanooga’s freight depot in the late 1800s. They also were used in Tampa, in the driveway of a 1891 building that was once a hotel, and is now a museum on the University of Tampa campus.
I find this quite interesting. Bricks are heavy, making them relatively expensive to ship. However, the best clays for bricks are not available everywhere. Still, it’s very curious that Birmingham, Alabama, bricks were shipped across the Southeast in the late 1800s.
This does leave one question: why were streets paved?
Why are streets paved? The alternative was mud. Among the many obvious disadvantages of mud was poor footing for horses. Before brick, roads were paved with stone. Such roads can still be seen around the world. The Via Appia in Rome or Kings Highway in Jordan are among the oldest. In Europe many of the “newer” cobbled roads are still in use. This goes for New York City and other large cities as well, where some cobbled or paved streets are still seen. The cobble stones and cut granite pavers were first brought to this country as ships’ ballast. Ship’s ballast was necessary in any case, but this way the cobbles or pavers doubled as profitable cargo. The same thing was later done with brick from Britain and elsewhere, and brick was often preferred over stone as a paver as it offered a smoother surface (and was therefore less noisy). The continuing growth of the U.S. brick industry and expansion of the railroads in the second half of the 19th century made the importation of brick unprofitable. 20th c. technology led to cheaper materials for paving: the first use of concrete for roads was in New Jersey in the 1940s, I believe, as was the first use of macadam in the 1950s. Jim D’Angelo.
When you travel to Savannah take a look at the brick pavements by the old waterfront. Brick pavers manufactured in August GA, Birmingham, AL, and as far away as Catskill, NY, to mention a few, have been used to create a wonderful montage. I’d be happy to share individual photos of these with anyone who is interested. Jim jdanglo@trcsolutions.com.
By the way, I have very comlete biography of John Randolph Copeland (1863-1935), partner in Copeland-Inglis Brick company, sent to me by Jim Graves, librarian of the International Brick Collectors Association, which proably has the best library anywhere on brick. I’d be happy to share it if anyone is interested. I loved the antecdote by his grandson included in this piece: He and another road builder were bidding on a conbtract to supply slag for highway construction. When the competitor was asked if his slag was better or different, he replied “slag is slag, it all comes from the same place.” Copeland interjected that “an egg and chicken s__t come from the same place but one can hardly fail to note the difference.” He got the contract.
While killing time this evening, I decided to do a web search for “Copeland-Inglis”. The reason I did was because this home I live in, in Birmingham, Alabama, was first owned, in around 1908, by the Inglis family. As a result there are hundreds if not thousands of “Copeland – Inglis bricks here – the basement floor is solid with them as is a retaining wall I was rebuilding just this past weekend. I have always tried to preserve the bricks, even though I didn’t know they were famous!
I can be reached at morrisj_newman@bellsouth.net