Posted March 24, 201411 yr Read original here: http://jeffbschroeder.com/grafius-court-streets-digging-into-williamsports-disappearing-neighborhoods/ I’m going to be starting a new series of photos and a new project that will delve into Williamsport’s older and disappearing neighborhoods. I’m going to start with one that is only a block or two away from where I live. The area lies in a triangle that is formed by Market Street, Hepburn Street, and Dubois Street. The neighborhood extends Downtown’s street grid that lies about 30 degrees in comparison to the rest of the street grid in the surround neighborhood. Many of the old cross streets are brick. They are basically alleys now, but back in the day, they were main streets. Architecture-wise, there isn’t much left. What is there, though, shows that there was much more to these neighborhoods than there is now. They were built with good bones. Map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Williamsport,+PA+17701/@41.2452064,-77.0050976,18z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89cfa61ebbf4995b:0x5199e38ff09058b1?hl=en The southern part of the old neighborhood as seen some redevelopment and revitalization. I would like to see the trend move upward to the few buildings that are left. Sadly, many of these brick streets have been paved over since June. The city decided to take them off of the list of historic streets. According to the Sun Gazette: "Brick streets are pretty, hold historic value, but are buggers on a city with a tight budget. That was pretty much the summation Thursday night when City Council, on first reading, voted 5 to 2 to have Court Street between Sixth and Seventh streets and Grafius Street between Hepburn and Market streets removed from those on a list to be preserved as brick. If the ordinance is amended on May 16, during a final reading, it would allow Streets and Parks to use Community Development Block Grant money to remove the brick, store it for use on other brick streets and pave the streets." Read more: http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/592186/Council-to-remove-street-from-list-of-historic-brick-pavements.html?nav=5011 It’s upsetting. You will see the difference in the photos taken recently. The first six photos were taken back in June of 2013. Looking west down Grafius Street Old buildings on Court Street Court & Grafius Court Street Grafius Street Court Street Market Street Market & Dubois Dubois Street Court & Dubois Looking North on Court Street Court Grafius & Court Streets Court Street Court & Seventh Court looking South Seventh Street Pine Street ending at Hepburn and Seventh Antique Pine Street Grafius looking East Sixth & Pine Sixth Street ending at First United Pine Street Diamond in the rough Pine & Dubois Pine & Dubois Looking West on Dubois Pine Street Looking East on Dubois Hepburn Street Sixth Street Still Standing Court Street looking South
March 24, 201411 yr The difference between brick and pavement is less subtle than it may seem, as your photos show.
March 24, 201411 yr Excellent thread! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 25, 201411 yr Thank you. It's about time I start posting again. I got another one of these on deck too.
March 25, 201411 yr love those brick streets. reminds me of the columbus german village. maybe it can be rehabbed like that was.
July 14, 201410 yr Great set of photos. Aside from the snow it looks like the kind of plac where I'd like to live.
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