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OK, it is actually a sett. A paving stone.
It's probably bigger than it looks. 5 x 5 x 10.5 inches, but it has a presence.
They're doing some construction work outside my office. Earlier this week I saw the pavement marked. They started jack-hammering and digging yesterday. Today they continued. The took off a manhole, and uncovered some sort of concrete vault, like for sewer.
I kept going to the window to watch. There's four to six inches of asphalt, then six inches of concrete. Under that I saw rectangular paving stones. Very cool! Except they kept going into the dump truck. I was wanting to have taken some. I would have (asked) if they had been lying in a pile on the street, but the backhoe moved them directly from the hole to the dump truck. Not a thing I would have expected city workers to accommodate me with.
But they cleaned up and put up some fencing, and left. So after work I went down, removed the fencing (temporarily), went down and grabbed a stone. I wonder who saw me. I would have liked more, but there was only one whole one left in the hole, and only a couple of partial stones. If there were very many, I would have brought my car down. I couldn't carry more than just the one, and wasn't going to make two trips. I probably would have if there had been another complete stone. Though there was one on the left of the picture that looks like I might have been able to pull it out. I carried the big rock around the corner and up three flights to my car. I got dirtier than expected. I'm used to dirt, but this didn't really brush off.
There didn't appear to be very many of them going into the truck. I think they were only getting a few from around the edges. They were likely removed when they first installed the vault.
So anyway, I'm pretty happy with this stone. It's been down there since... the 19th century? And it will be a cool garden ornament.
EDIT: I posted the find on the Old Milwaukee Fb group, and learned some more.
Someone posted a screenshot from the city's Road Life app, which has a record of pavement surfaces. It shows that Juneau Ave (about six blocks north) was:
1903-1927 unknown (screen is cut off)
1910-1918 sandstone block
1899-1910 brick
1899-1903 brick
1891-1899 limestone block, stone block
1876-1891 Wood block, wood plank, timber
Brick (made of clay) was quite common, but is definitely less durable than granite. It would have to be replaced and repaired a lot, but it would have been cheap. Limestone would have been pretty good, but I can't imagine sandstone would have worked at all.
* * * * * *
Bobbie Erdmann
That stone does indeed look like a paving stone....History lesson...by the 1880s larger cities were looking for materials with which to pave their streets and granite and stone became the popular choice because of its longevity. Men versed in the properties of stone began combing the state looking for a supply. One set of entrepreneurs found the rock outcroppings of Marquette, Green Lake, and Waushara Counties. Quarries were established at Montello, Berlin and Redgranite. The stone referred locally as "granite" is actually rhyolitic welded tuff or rhyolite, a product of volcanic activity. This mainly black stone has a reputation of being able to withstand 47,674 pounds per square inch of pressure making it one of the hardest substances. It is recorded that roads in Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit all were paved with the Montello and Berlin Granite Co. stone. At its peak Berlin was shipping 10 to 15 rail cars of stone each day. From the red color of your stone I would guess that it came from the Redgranite quarry. Berlin's stone is dark black with flecks and Montello's stone is more dark grey than black. The aristocrats of the trade, the stone cutters, were paid $6 to $8 per day. When these roads were replaced with asphalt and concrete, we are told that the stones were used to help build breakwaters in Milwaukee and Chicago.
* * * * * *
But my memories of Montello feature red rock in the quarry (it's a park now), so I looked it up. Montello and Redgranite both produce red granite, in several shades of red. The Berlin quarry produced a black rhyolite with flecks of red.
Several other towns in Wisconsin were noted for producing granite, including for paving stones. Amberg, Athelstine, Waupaca, Waushara, Wausau and Utley, most of which produced granite of some shade of red. Based on the photos at this site, I'm guessing mine is from Waushara, due to the purplish color.
.
It's probably bigger than it looks. 5 x 5 x 10.5 inches, but it has a presence.
They're doing some construction work outside my office. Earlier this week I saw the pavement marked. They started jack-hammering and digging yesterday. Today they continued. The took off a manhole, and uncovered some sort of concrete vault, like for sewer.
I kept going to the window to watch. There's four to six inches of asphalt, then six inches of concrete. Under that I saw rectangular paving stones. Very cool! Except they kept going into the dump truck. I was wanting to have taken some. I would have (asked) if they had been lying in a pile on the street, but the backhoe moved them directly from the hole to the dump truck. Not a thing I would have expected city workers to accommodate me with.
But they cleaned up and put up some fencing, and left. So after work I went down, removed the fencing (temporarily), went down and grabbed a stone. I wonder who saw me. I would have liked more, but there was only one whole one left in the hole, and only a couple of partial stones. If there were very many, I would have brought my car down. I couldn't carry more than just the one, and wasn't going to make two trips. I probably would have if there had been another complete stone. Though there was one on the left of the picture that looks like I might have been able to pull it out. I carried the big rock around the corner and up three flights to my car. I got dirtier than expected. I'm used to dirt, but this didn't really brush off.
There didn't appear to be very many of them going into the truck. I think they were only getting a few from around the edges. They were likely removed when they first installed the vault.
So anyway, I'm pretty happy with this stone. It's been down there since... the 19th century? And it will be a cool garden ornament.
EDIT: I posted the find on the Old Milwaukee Fb group, and learned some more.
Someone posted a screenshot from the city's Road Life app, which has a record of pavement surfaces. It shows that Juneau Ave (about six blocks north) was:
1903-1927 unknown (screen is cut off)
1910-1918 sandstone block
1899-1910 brick
1899-1903 brick
1891-1899 limestone block, stone block
1876-1891 Wood block, wood plank, timber
Brick (made of clay) was quite common, but is definitely less durable than granite. It would have to be replaced and repaired a lot, but it would have been cheap. Limestone would have been pretty good, but I can't imagine sandstone would have worked at all.
* * * * * *
Bobbie Erdmann
That stone does indeed look like a paving stone....History lesson...by the 1880s larger cities were looking for materials with which to pave their streets and granite and stone became the popular choice because of its longevity. Men versed in the properties of stone began combing the state looking for a supply. One set of entrepreneurs found the rock outcroppings of Marquette, Green Lake, and Waushara Counties. Quarries were established at Montello, Berlin and Redgranite. The stone referred locally as "granite" is actually rhyolitic welded tuff or rhyolite, a product of volcanic activity. This mainly black stone has a reputation of being able to withstand 47,674 pounds per square inch of pressure making it one of the hardest substances. It is recorded that roads in Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit all were paved with the Montello and Berlin Granite Co. stone. At its peak Berlin was shipping 10 to 15 rail cars of stone each day. From the red color of your stone I would guess that it came from the Redgranite quarry. Berlin's stone is dark black with flecks and Montello's stone is more dark grey than black. The aristocrats of the trade, the stone cutters, were paid $6 to $8 per day. When these roads were replaced with asphalt and concrete, we are told that the stones were used to help build breakwaters in Milwaukee and Chicago.
* * * * * *
But my memories of Montello feature red rock in the quarry (it's a park now), so I looked it up. Montello and Redgranite both produce red granite, in several shades of red. The Berlin quarry produced a black rhyolite with flecks of red.
Several other towns in Wisconsin were noted for producing granite, including for paving stones. Amberg, Athelstine, Waupaca, Waushara, Wausau and Utley, most of which produced granite of some shade of red. Based on the photos at this site, I'm guessing mine is from Waushara, due to the purplish color.
.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 01:00 am (UTC)From:Your stone looks pretty heavy to have carried as far as you did.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 02:13 am (UTC)From: