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Cobblestone Streets, Sabres: Rip ’em Up or Pave ’em Over

By Timothy Tielman

The Buffalo Sabres hockey club, future tenants of the Crossroads Arena, slated to open in the fall of 1996, have requested the city to either pave over all the stone streets in the Cobblestone Historic District with asphalt or rip out all the stone and replace it with gravel and concrete. In both cases the city would ostensibly restore the stone paving when schedules and money permit, but no earlier than the summer of 1997.

In terms of preservation issues, that is really an intolerable situation. How it would effect the small businesses who hope to trade on the mystique of history and cobblestones is unclear.

At this point, the city's public works department seems ready, willing, and able to acquiesce to the Sabres’ demands. Even the concept of virtually all-new uniform and smooth paving blocks or patterned concrete has been raised–smooth,uniform surfaces being catnip to streets types. The ‘Lady Going to the Hockey Game in High Heels’ and the ‘Modern Specifications’ arguments have been raised yet again. Please.

Let's have some flexibility. This writer has personally witnessed a four-man crew laying stone roadways equal in area to the our cobblestone streets in six weeks. It can be done. It also can be done the traditional way, with a sand base, and withstand any vehicular or climatological rigors it is exposed to. The mayor's office in New Bedford, MA, reports just that fact. (Downtown New Bedford will shortly be designated a National Historical Park.) In addition, the streets of Old Town Montreal and Quebec City offer more testimony to the fact.

Authenticity really counts in these matters.

There may be some training involved, but to resort to ripping up, paving over, and new, uniform materials seems penny-wise, pound foolish. It would instantly be seen as fake and devalue the area, and it would unquestionably threaten state and federal funds for these streets. All federally-funded projects must follow Secretary of Interior standards in designated historic districts, and this street plan is a blatant violation.

These issues must be addressed immediately. The contractors should be palletizing all the stone removed for subsurface work. That is clearly not happening. People are free to stop by steal as many as they want. Mary Street, a key historic feature, is virtually obliterated, while no surveying as to its exact location and dimensions has been undertaken. The city's current stewardship of these historic resources is irresponsible.