History of Sidewalks: Introduction

Abutters Used to Pay for Street Improvements

Image 1. John Vachon, “Shady Side of Main Street. Elkins, West, Virginia.” Image Source: Library of Congress.

See also, Abutters' Responsibilities for Streets and Sidewalks in Ancient Rome

The history of sidewalks has been mostly neglected. Historically, sidewalks have mostly been an afterthought. While many Roman cities had sidewalks, they were only features of a minority of streets. An exception to this pattern to the ancient rule is Pompeii, which is why the few scholars who have studied sidewalks have studied Pompeii. Catherine Saliou published her findings in French and Claire Weiss published her early findings online. Weiss wrote a dissertation on sidewalks in four ancient Roman cities, and the historiographic section concluded that there was not much history on sidewalks.¹

With abutting property owners as financiers for street improvements, they also exercised more control on whether to make improvements. They also chose what and where to pave. The interests of property owners, the interests of travelers, and the interests of the general public did not always align. While I have argued a similarity with the financing schemes for pavements over about two millennia, there may have been an important difference. Clay McShane claims that municipalities commonly accepted the maintenance liabilities even when they burdened property owners for the initial improvements, distinguishing the American financing system from the Roman system spelled out in the Tabula Heracleensis.²

For these reasons, understanding financing for sidewalks requires understanding financing decisions for streets in general. Throughout the long modern era, streets transitioned from multi-functional, public corridors to transportation corridors. McShane probes the tensions evident in the nineteenth century, as competing interest groups had different notions about street improvements, which often created conflicts over types of street pavements. Since property owners paid for initial construction, but not for maintenance, durability was not an important consideration. Obviously durability was a preoccupation with municipalities in such a scenario. Travelers also had different preferences. For pedestrians, a relative clean and dry surface was most important, so they liked raised sidewalks and crosswalks, or at least, surfaces which were frequently cleaned. Passengers on carriages and wagons preferred a smooth surface on a street free of obstructions. These characteristics facilitated speed, safety, and a comfortable ride. Yet this even created a bit of conflict between the interests of the consumers of vehicular travel and the providers of the service. While a smooth surface might have saved some wear and tear on the vehicles, it presented a slipping hazard to their livestock. The durable pavements valued by local governments caused livestock to go lame, according to their handlers. Just as today, property owners most often considered vehicle traffic to be a nuisance. So they may have at times been hostile to the interests of travelers. Leaving the carriageway unpaved may have discouraged vehicle traffic. Sidewalks, on the other hand, benefitted the property owners and extra pedestrian traffic would not have been perceived as harmful. When property owners contemplated carriageway pavement, they preferred pavements of cheaper materials with good drainage properties, but not pavements which would encourage more vehicle traffic. Sometimes they chose bois d’arc, Nicholson blocks, or other forms of wood, because they muted the sounds of horses and vehicles.³   

The ancient system was abutters’ responsibility and abutters’ choice for street improvements. As streets were used more as easements for transportation for public utilities such as potable water, sewage, gas, and electricity, a block-by-block approach to decision-making was no longer tenable, so abutters lost control over improvements on their streets. Initially, abutters still paid assessments for improvements within utility districts even though they lost their power in determining the nature of these improvements. Thereafter, the trend was away from abutters’ responsibilities for street improvements and a socialization of their costs and benefits. However, these new principles applied to the carriageways and the utility infrastructure, while sidewalk financing remained stuck in the past.

Thesis

For the purpose of this series, a sidewalk is a relatively narrow, paved walkway running parallel to a roadbed or carriageway. Historically, there is not always a means for determining whether sidewalks had lain on private or public property, and this uncertainty is examined below. This series will treat sidewalks as street elements, thus as part of the street and not something separate from it. The carriageway will refer to the part of the street where vehicles are allowed to travel.

Sidewalk policy is interesting from a historical perspective because it simultaneously represents a historical continuity and discontinuity. Abutters’ responsibility for sidewalk improvement is an ancient practice. The discontinuity is contextual. Abutters’ were equally responsible for improvements to the entire street, including sidewalks, curbing, and carriageways. In present times, the responsibility for sidewalk maintenance lies with the abutting property owners, but maintenance of the part of the street between the curbs is financed by the local government and uses general revenue. Let’s call this the Double-Standard of American transportation finance.

Sidewalks, when they existed, played a different role within the pre-industrial street compared to their role within the context of the modern street. For the purposes of this study, all streets prior to the construction of Pont Neuf during the reign of Henri IV are assumed to be pre-industrial streets. So Pont Neuf represents the first modern street.

1. Two detailed studies of sidewalks in Pompeii are Catherine Saliou, “Les trottoirs de Pompei: une premiere approche,“ Bulletin Antieke Beschaving: Annual Papers on Classical Archaeology (BaBesch), 74 (1999): 161-218 and Claire Weiss, “Determining Function of Pompeian Sidewalk Features through GIS Analysis,” Publikationsserver der Universität Tübingen, 363-372. The best text on the history of sidewalks to date is Claire J. Weiss, “The Construction of Sidewalks as Indicator of Social and Economic Interaction in Ancient Roman Cities,” PhD Dissertation, University of Virginia, 2018.

2. Clay McShane, Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), 6–7.

3. McShane, Down the Asphalt Path, 6–9, 59–65, n. 17, 231.