Bottom of potholes exposes some of city’s history

There’s one good thing about potholes.

Well, maybe not good exactly, but interesting. And not all potholes, just some of them on the lower South Hill and in a few other spots around town – particularly the ones along Sixth Avenue between Browne and Bernard streets.

Happily, they’re not of axle-busting depth, thanks mostly to the underlying vitrified brick they reveal. Many of Spokane’s streets were paved in brick in the late 1880s and early 1900s. And in areas of the South Hill, downtown and Browne’s Addition, when the streets were due to be repaved, the bricks remained in place and asphalt was laid down right on top.

In most of the potholes, the revealed brick is in pretty good condition, which is not quite the case for the ruptured asphalt overlaying them. But that’s the way it goes with the freezing and thawing cycles of pavement – the inevitable potholes.

According to “Edwards History of Spokane County,” all of the city’s streets were dirt until 1897, when Howard Street from Riverside to Front (now Spokane Falls Boulevard) was paved with vitrified brick.

Vitrification is a process in which clay brick is glazed at higher than normal temperatures to ensure it is impervious to water and is highly resistant to chemical corrosion. This is an expensive process. Back in 1905, vitrified bricks were about twice the cost of common red bricks, according to the 1908 Bureau of the Census.

In her book “Exploring Spokane’s Past,” Barbara Fleischman Cochran gives the chronology of brick paving in Spokane – Grand Boulevard in 1909, South Monroe and Lincoln streets in 1910, for example.

Back in 1918 the third Monroe Street bridge was paved with brick. Street paving proceeded slowly in the early decades of the 20th century, and when an allocation of state gas tax revenues went to the cities in 1935, the speed of paving picked up.

It’s picking up now, courtesy of those pesky potholes. But even as we gripe about them, take a look and check if some bricking history is revealed in the particular potholes in your line of sight. That can make them, well, a little more interesting from an historical point of view.

Not that vehicle damage is funny, but a bit of a sense of humor can help. Consider the remark quoted in a 1984 New York Times article on “The Pothole: A Source of Perverse Civic Pride” – “You don’t watch for potholes around here; you watch for a little roadway between them.”