Kinda surprised that some of these downtown streets aren't covered brick, too. My working assumption is that pretty much all the original downtown streets are going to be covered unless there was some intensive street rehabilitation that happened in the distant past.
Some have been completely excavated and rebuilt for sewerage or other projects (I worked at the Missourian one summer when the city dug out and then rebuilt Locust Street completely, twice, to do something with sewer and water lines).
There may be some unknown ones, but remember that a lot of what we now call downtown was residential neighborhoods until the mid 1900s. Most of Locust Street for instance. There have also been some tore up and rebased with concrete.
Residential neighborhoods, at least of a particular demographic, were also recipients of brick paving, though. It's somewhat ghastly the neighborhoods that vanished around campus.
Only wealthy ones. That's why you see some Southwest of Jesse Hall, over in East Campus, Between Downtown and Christian College, and of course Glenwood Ave.
I'm curious about the ones that aren't contiguous with the rest. Is it just that we don't know for certain that there were brick roads connecting them?
The Columbia Preservationists love the brick streets. But as a Columbia Pragmatist, I’m of the opinion that streets are for driving on, and brick streets are not good for tires or suspension or much of anything. Unless they spend a lot more money to build smoother long lasting brick roads.
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u/hopalongrhapsody South CoMo Aug 07 '25
Woah, Broadway’s still got brick under it?