Brick Streets of Stephenville

Duane's take

The way I tell it, this one comes straight off the official marker for the Brick Streets of Stephenville, out in Erath County. Now let me do it justice. Picture Stephenville in 1929.

The streets are dirt. Not charming, lived-in dirt. Just plain old dust-in-your-face, mud-in-your-boots dirt.

And the Stephenville City Council had seen enough of it. So they authorized paving, and they brought in the Thurber Construction Company to do the work. Here's where it gets interesting.

The bricks didn't come from just anywhere. They came from Thurber, twenty-six miles to the northwest, and those Thurber bricks had earned themselves a reputation. Builders around the state wanted them.

High quality, people said, and they meant it. The crew laid those bricks over a macadam base and bonded the whole thing together with a tar-like substance. That's not a shortcut.

That's a commitment. Now, the timing. The ink on that 1929 authorization was barely dry before the Depression settled in over the country like a cold fog.

And yet, the individual property owners, the ones who bore most of the cost, they didn't walk away from it. They carried the burden through genuine economic hardship, and when those brick thoroughfares were finished, they looked at them with pride. You can understand why.

Some of those streets have since been covered over with asphalt, which is the kind of thing that happens when people stop remembering what's underneath. But where the brick pavement still shows, it remains, by the marker's own word, handsome and durable. Dirt to brick, Depression and all.

Stephenville built something that lasted, and the streets themselves are still making that argument.

What the marker says

Seeking to improve the town's dirt streets, the Stephenville City Council in 1929 authorized paving by the Thurber Construction Company. High-quality bricks from Thurber (26 mi. NW), popular with builders around the state, were laid over a macadam base and bonded with a tar-like substance. Individual property owners bore most of the cost, despite the economic hardships of the Depression, and viewed the brick thoroughfares with pride. Although some of the streets have since been covered with asphalt, the brick pavement remains handsome and durable. (1978)