April 5, 2000
Brick streets stand up to test of time
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Quaint, tree-lined bricks streets evoke peaceful images of small town days of yore.
Two of the oldest residential streets in Traverse City still boast scenic brick streets that live up to their billing. To drive over Sixth and Eighth streets is like a trip back in time as the car rumbles and flows over the bricks, with drivers naturally slowing down in a traffic calmer's dream.
"The bricks add character and quality to the street," said Julius Petertyl, a Seventh Street resident who lived for years on Sixth Street. "The bricks on these streets are very hard and durable bricks and they will last as long as the pyramids. Those bricks on Sixth Street are the best bricks in town."
As the best in town, the Sixth Street bricks - whose dimensions in inches are 2 x 2 x 8 - are a sought after commodity by the city's street department. Bricks on Eighth Street, by contrast, measure in inches 2 x 4 x 8. They are much easier to find and a large quantity of them were stockpiled by the city when they renovated Eighth Street between Cass and Union three years ago.
So great is the need for more Sixth Street bricks that when the former Celebrations building was demolished on Lake Street recently, street engineers zoomed over to determine if the house's chimney or foundation was made of these bricks. A disappointed streets superintendent Gordon Zoulek discovered they were the Eighth Street size.
Zoulek resorts to such sleuthing because he has just three whole Sixth Street bricks left. His collection of bricks also sports an assortment of pieces that he uses for repairs and patching on Sixth Street, but whole, relatively undamaged bricks are in high demand.
"Ten years ago we tore up an intersection at Sixth and Union and we have since used almost all those bricks we salvaged for maintenance purposes," said Zoulek, who has been streets superintendent for 13 years. "Anything that has to be dug up along Sixth Street we save so we can put them back. It's like a puzzle."
The devotion to bricks comes at a time when cities and towns, including Traverse City, are including brick accents in their streetscapes. Plus the original brick streets have proven their mettle in the midst of this nostalgia: their durability shows that some old ideas withstand the test of time.
The seemingly indestructible bricks that comprise Sixth and Eighth Streets are approximately 100 years old and wear like iron. Potholes, which normally occur within a few years of putting down asphalt, are unheard of on brick streets because the spacing between the bricks allows them to move as the weather changes.
Brick streets do warp over time into a veritable topography of hills and valleys. This is especially noticeable to drivers as their cars shimmy over the waves toward the east end of Sixth and Eighth streets before Union. However, do not blame the mighty brick for this effect. Instead, look to the concrete bed underneath, which cracks and wears out over time just as concrete roads do.
Charged with maintaining Sixth and Eighth streets for the long haul, Zoulek checked into purchasing a supply of the smaller bricks 10 years ago. A place out west sold some of that original style but he found the price tag - $28,000 not counting shipping - cost prohibitive.
As the search goes on for the elusive Sixth Street bricks, Petertyl, born in 1903, easily recalls the days when many city streets were unpaved and anything would have been an improvement. Rainy days turned streets into mud pits that took days to dry and summer temperatures baked them to dust. When bricks were added, residents were thrilled to be rid of the dust and mud.
"There were no catch basins for draining so the water stayed in the streets," Petertyl recalled. "Front, Union, State and Washington were originally just dirt roads that were terrible with a horse and buggy for traffic."