Street Art

Last month, I blogged about a vault light cover embedded in the sidewalk along Lancaster Street between Lark Street and Washington Park. A second look revealed that almost all of the elegant matching brownstone houses along this blog had these "sidewalk illuminations" set in the pavement out front.

The houses along this block were built between 1888 and 1889 by James Eaton who was heavily influenced by H.H. Richardson, the architect who designed City Hall and with whom Eaton had worked during the construction of the State Capitol.

Local legend says that the stones for these buildings were salvaged from the old State Capitol designed by Philip Hooker and demolished in 1883.

Most of the vault lights are in poor condition, with only two retaining most of the lovely purple prisms which first caught my eye. Some are filled in with cement, leaving only the metal frame.

Such is almost the case with the one above, near Waldorf Tuxedo on the corner. But here, there are colorful glass marbles pressed into the cement, along with the year 1975 and initials.