Sometimes green and a little Pacific Northwest mossy, sometimes just bumpy, there are still stretches of cobblestone streets around Capitol Hill in 2024.
Seattle is home to about 100 blocks of cobblestone streets, including east of 23rd Ave and on Mercer, Roy, Valley and Ward streets. Similarly to other cities across the country in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the cobblestones replaced dirt or plank roads — the original roads of Seattle — but as the city turned to asphalt and became more concretely paved, some historically stoned streets have survived.
“Many people who live near or travel on these streets appreciate their aesthetic quality and historic significance, and the city has generally attempted to preserve these cobblestone streets to the extent possible,” a Seattle Department of Transportation representative told CHS.
Formerly known as the Seattle Engineering Department, SDOT and the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods signed an agreement that set out guidelines for the preservation and maintenance of cobblestone streets in 1996.
“The intent of this agreement was to preserve the cobblestone streets, which were in good condition at the time,” the department representative explained.
Under the 1990s agreement, these streets must be preserved when possible. Temporary repairs with differing materials, like asphalt or concrete, take place when absolutely necessary.
According to SDOT, the repair materials for the short-term are then replaced with matching stones.
“There is not a dedicated budget for cobblestone street preservation, and this type of work is challenging due to the availability of matching stones as well as the time consuming and specialized nature of the work,” the SDOT rep said.
Historian David Williams noted how the original stones were first introduced to cater to horse riders, and they created more resiliency and decreased issues with getting stuck in mud or sliding on the plank roads.
“Technically, they’re actually not cobblestone roads. The technical term is a sett for the cobble,” Williams told CHS. Sett is a rock or squared off piece of the stone.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, sandstone setts were a popular choice, most of which came from the quarries in Wilkeson. While they provided good traction for horses, the horseshoes partially wore down the stones.
“They’re mostly on the east-west trending roads,” Williams said. “There’s probably some on the north-south trending roads, but almost all of them are on east-west, which is generally the steeper side of the hills in Seattle.”
For decades, SDOT has conducted asphalt pothole repairs on cobblestone streets when it’s an emergency, like a large pothole that impedes commuter safety.
Williams said cyclists in particular may experience more challenges when traveling on setts due to the uneven surfaces, but at the same time, they’re far less slick than pavement when it rains or snows.
They also have another historically great attribute for the automobile era.
“In many ways, cobblestone streets may act as a natural speed bump which generally result in drivers slowing down and driving cautiously,” the SDOT representative said.
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Put them in a museum and pave them over. The one by me is no longer navigable and is just an ugly patchwork of dozens of asphalt splotches.
Some are still worth keeping but a lot of them just force bikes onto the sidewalk and cars to take long detours to avoid them entirely.
The potholes are like 8-10″ deep and almost everywhere.
Agree. There are areas that are legitimately hazardous to traverse on my cheap scooter. Unfortunately the effect is making micromobility less practical.
Smoother ride than many paved Seattle pothole ridden streets too
Cobblestones are natural speed bumps. Speeding problem solved on these streets.
They are dangerous for scooter and bicycle riders and I’d be curious how many tort claims the city gets for them?
Sorry, but this isn’t reporting. You took quotes from the city but don’t appear to have visited many (or any?) of the Capitol Hill streets still made with cobble stones….they are barely navigable in dry much less wet weather. They are a mess of partially filled/collapsed asphalt patch repairs.
Either the city needs to maintain them to be useful 21st century roads or we need to remove them. European cobblestone streets are both historical and maintained. These are not.
Yeah, this “Temporary repairs with differing materials, like asphalt or concrete, take place when absolutely necessary.”
What a joke. I’ve never seen a cobblestone repair once on Capitol Hill. Only ugly asphalt patches on top of asphalt patches and even then only when the degradation is so bad that it’s impassable without almost certain damage to a vehicle even at 1mph.
The cobblestone street in front of my building was repaired about five years ago. They did a beautiful job. It looks great, adds a nice sense of history, and keeps vehicles at a reasonable pace descending the hill to 19th Ave East from 18th Ave East.
That is certainly not the case for the stretch of Pine Street between 18th and 19th; originally paved with cobblestones, it has long since been beat to hell, randomly patched and re-patched with indifferent blobs of occasional asphalt over the years. There is no longer anything beautiful, historic, or appealing about it; just a terrible piece of road I never want to ride a bike or scooter down.
Fully get rid of them
They are treacherous for bikes; I don’t know who thinks they aren’t slicker in the rain, because they certainly are.
These cobblestone streets are as close to “off-roading” as my fancy SUV will ever get.
I love our cobblestone street near our house. It slows traffic as it enters the neighborhood.
Saw these in Old Sacramento. Charming and historic but expensive to preserve. Replacing them with gray brick or some type of hard synthetic material might be a workable alternative to cutting thousands of stones.
We are in a time of breakneck technological change. Future generations might benefit from a reminder that we didn’t always have antigravity vehicles and teleportation booths.