Oakland Underfoot

New Orleans has a lively streetscape, which you see a lot of because you need to watch your step in the old central city. This is a sampling of what’s there, gathered casually during a recent stay. I did not see any concrete sidewalk stamps, but they do exist.

This beautiful water meter box cover was designed by the manufacturer to replace the classic version first introduced in 1921. (The classic version serves as the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board‘s logo.) The little dome covers an antenna that transmits data to the meter readers.

A sewer cleanout cover installed by the Sewerage and Water Board, which was established in 1899.

New Orleans Public Service, Inc. was in charge of power, gas and transit from the 1920s to the 1980s, when the transit segment was taken over by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (the RTA) and the power and gas segment became Entergy New Orleans. Today the NOPSI Hotel occupies its old headquarters near City Hall.

This would be the Western Union Telegraph Company.

I’m striking out on CELP Co.

Same thing with E. E. Co.

Don’t know what PTC Co. is or was.

Finally, DRAIN lids are everywhere, along with WATER and SEWER lids.

I had about an hour to walk around downtown from the El Paso train station. The sidewalk stamp right outside was the only one I found, but there was plenty of street stuff. J.A.R. Concrete did business for 65 years, but went bankrupt in 2023.

El Paso Foundry & Machine dates back to the 1890s, but I can’t find anything about its current existence.

It seems like an interesting city, and a fellow passenger, an El Paso native coming back for a visit, praised it to the skies.

All I know of Salinas is what I saw at the train station, where the Coast Starlight stopped for a “fresh air break” for all the smokers to light up. The Amtrak station appears to have been renovated, and it has a little rail museum. Plus this mark, dated August 2020. Cen-Cal Construction is a modest sized firm, without a website, that was founded in 2011.

305 N. Harbor Boulevard

Right near the San Pedro cruise-ship berths, way down at the edge of this huge city, I found proof of concept that L.A. has sidewalk stamps.

1109 Pacific Highway, San Diego

I was only in town for a few hours and didn’t get far from the cruise ship, but here was a stamp from Diversified Minerals Inc. (DMI) right by the pier. I’ve been to San Diego before and knew there’s a wealth of stamps there, some of them quite old and preserved by city ordinance. But this was the one my camera caught.

36th Avenue at Foothill Boulevard

The Mueller Company traces its history back to 1857, but its brass business dates from 1927.

I was just stopping for lunch in the older part of town and was pleased to find this. Sears & Baker was mentioned in the local papers from 1905 to 1933.