Just Over $870,000 Has Been Approved to Rehabilitate Some Tyler, Texas Brick Streets

Tyler, Texas is known for its beautiful roses but is also known for the miles of brick streets that run around downtown and through parts of the Azalea District. Yes, those roads are rough, but it's a small inconvenience for the charm and character they add to the city. One stretch of those brick streets is about to undergo a bit of a rehabilitation.

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Brick Streets of Tyler

The brick streets of Tyler were literally laid brick by brick starting with the first streets in 1912 with more streets added in 1925. According to the Tyler Morning Telegraph, this was needed because downtown businesses didn't like the fact that their goods were dusty in the summer from the dirt roads outside and how difficult the wet roads were to navigate in the winter to deliver goods from the trains. Those brick streets still take up about 14 miles of roadway around downtown Tyler.

Charm of the Brick Streets

Sadly, across the United States, these brick streets are disappearing simply because it's not very cost friendly to maintain them. Tyler's downtown brick streets are a nice piece of charm for the city. Whether you're driving on them, as rough as they may be, or simply walking on them. It's nice to have that bit of history still preserved in the city.

City Council Approval

The Tyler City Council has given approval for a contract with Crown Civil Construction Corporation for $873,961 to rehabilitate just over 21,000 square feet of brick and reconstruct a portion of South Oakwood Street.

Video of the Construction of the Original Brick Streets

The City of Tyler Youtube channel has raw video of the original construction of the brick streets around downtown Tyler.

It's always cool to see old time video dictating the past of our East Texas cities. There's not much of it which, I think, adds to how special it is to see.