photo by: Rochelle Valverde

East Lawrence Neighborhood Association Vice President KT Walsh and Old West Lawrence Neighborhood Association President Eric Kirkendall are pictured in the 700 block of Mississippi Street on Aug. 24, 2020. Walsh and Kirkendall are part of a coalition of neighborhood association representatives working with the city to develop a policy regarding the restoration and maintenance of brick streets and sidewalks.

Though preservation efforts in Lawrence’s historic neighborhoods have conserved the turreted homes, craftsman bungalows and stone cottages built in the city’s early years, neighborhood representatives of a new coalition say there is an important piece missing — the streets.

The coalition, which consists of representatives from five historic neighborhoods, is working with the city to develop a policy regarding the restoration and maintenance of the red brick streets, limestone curbs and sidewalks in the East Lawrence, Old West Lawrence, Oread, Pinckney and Barker neighborhoods.

East Lawrence Neighborhood Association Vice President KT Walsh, a member of the group, said that the bricks add beauty to neighborhoods, both with their warm color and the sound made when cars and bikes go over them. Apart from that, though, she said the stone curbs, brick sidewalks and brick streets are an integral part of the city’s historic homes and districts that should not be forgotten or left out.

“It speaks to the historic nature of the original neighborhoods,” Walsh said. “It’s context.”

The group would like to see a policy that lays out which residential streets in historic neighborhoods are candidates for restoration, and a comprehensive street plan to ultimately restore those streets to brick over time. There is currently no such policy, and historically, the city’s practices for repairing existing brick streets and those that have been resurfaced with asphalt have been handled on a case-by-case basis, according to Senior Project Engineer Gary Reinheimer.

The result is that on some blocks of the city’s historic neighborhoods, the original brick streets have been restored, are lined with rough-cut limestone curbs, and are bordered by brick or flagstone sidewalks. Many homes have kept in place the stone hitching posts, topped with iron rings, once used to tie up horses. But far more commonly, the city’s original red brick streets are hidden under layers of asphalt, with the bricks only showing through when the road is in need of repair.

Old West Lawrence Neighborhood Association President Eric Kirkendall, another member of the group, said that many OWL residents are in favor of preserving the neighborhood’s brick streets and sidewalks. Kirkendall said that OWL surveyed residents regarding their preference between asphalt overlays and restoration of brick streets, and more than 70% of those who responded said they wanted to see the brick streets restored. Kirkendall said that bringing back the brick streets to the neighborhoods that surround the city’s historic downtown would also add to the character of the area and could contribute to tourism.

“We get a surprising amount of people coming through Old West Lawrence just to look at the houses and look at the surroundings,” Kirkendall said. “And if you can imagine a Lawrence in which that original town site was treated with respect and appropriately maintained, I think it could be a real asset, tourismwise, for Lawrence.”

Restoration of brick streets and sidewalks, though, would take both money and expertise.

Reinheimer said in an email to the Journal-World that the city does not reconstruct brick streets on a frequent enough basis to have an accurate cost estimate, but that reconstructing a brick street has significantly higher initial costs as compared to a concrete or asphalt street. He said that’s because a concrete or asphalt street needs to be constructed as a base under a brick street. He said other variables that affect the cost of reconstruction include how much of the old brick available is available, how much new brick is required and how much utility work is involved.

Though Walsh and Kirkendall both recognized that restoration efforts would cost more money up front, they said that in addition to funding from the city’s streets program, grants could be sought to help fund the effort. There were once miles of brick streets in Lawrence, and while Walsh and Kirkendall said restoring them all would be a decadeslong effort, they both emphasized that once brick streets are reconstructed, they can last much longer and require less maintenance than their asphalt counterparts.

“In the short term it is more expensive to restore a brick street, but if it’s done correctly you’ve got 100 years of a solid street,” Walsh said.

Walsh said to ensure the brick streets and sidewalks are restored properly, the policy would also need to include best practices for restoration and maintenance. She said the policy could cover important aspects of brick street and sidewalk construction, such as how the base is constructed and the pattern and manner in which the bricks are laid, as well as rules for city crews or contractors when removing and transporting bricks from streets that are not going to be restored. For example, she said stacking and transporting bricks on pallets would preserve them for use on other streets, whereas just hauling and dumping them in piles would cause many to break or chip.

Walsh said the group has meet a few times with city engineers to discuss its goals for the policy, and the hope is that the policy could be created by next summer. She said that the group would be researching brick street policies in other cities to guide the development of a draft policy for Lawrence. The policy would need to be considered by the city’s Historic Resources Commission, the Planning Commission and the City Commission.