Web 2.0 & New Bedford Belgium Block

Besides my meeting with Mathieu Plourde about Web 2.0 possibilities & doing a little bit more reading in "Patina of Place," I didn't really accomplish too too much. However, I did think a lot about how I might want to set up my thesis & what it might entail.

My Web 2.0 meeting went really well, there are so many possibilities on the web &, in my mind, they all constitute low-impact development that could assist in adding more numbers to the tourism count of the city. All my online research has provided a mixed bag & I'll be using that as part of my argument. There needs to be connectivity & more web presence. During a presentation Mathieu made while I was in PEMCI, he said something along the lines of "people are always going to be talking; it's up to you to decide if you want to be part of the conversation," which really set me off thinking about online content for towns & how this hurts or helps tourism.

While reading "Patina of Place" I came across a mention of a particular building material being discussed in the context of the industrial development of the North End. Kingston Heath states: "Unlike the unsightly dirt roads surrounding Wamsutta's tenement blocks, the major thoroughfares surrounding the Grinnell Mill Village were paved with New Bedford Belgium block (a granite, brick-shaped paving stone imbedded in sand)." {page 82}

I had never heard of a New Bedford Belgium block, but I did know that cobblestones had been used to pave the New Bedford Whaling National Park in the late 1990's. I was immediately curious about whether or not these could be New Bedford Belgium blocks. It would be wonderful if they were since it would mean that the city made an effort to incorporate not only a historic building material, but also a local one.

I did some digging.

I found a report from 1998, by Christine A. Arato & Patrick L. Eleey, entitled: Safely Moored at Last: Cultural Landscape Report for New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park {I also posted a link to this in the Online Resources section}. It had great information on anything & everything related to the physical state of the New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park. Here's a selection from this report on Belgium Blocks, which it turns out are used in the National Park {yay preservation!}:

"Within the New Bedford Whaling NHP, the streets and side-walks are constructed with a limited variety of materials. These include granite, brick, flagstone, cobble, and asphalt. Granite Belgian blocks, cut to a dimension approximately 4 by 10 by 6 inches and originally used as ballast on merchant ships returning to the New World from Belgium, constitute the surface paving for most streets in the park. The blocks differ in size, color, and spacing. The variances in their appearance range from small sharp-edged blue granite to larger rounded-edge granite with a high iron content, resulting in a warmer, browner color. These warmer-colored stones tend to be slightly larger than the blue ones. Blocks that had been used previously as paving material in the nineteenth century have been reused, wherever possible, when roads were repaved. These previously-used stones were cleaned before being re-laid. The age of the pavers is quite obvious when compared to the contemporary stones; their smoother edges show more signs of weathering. Belgian blocks serve a variety of uses in the park. Most streets are paved with Belgian block in a running bond pattern, as are curb cuts for parking lot and driveway entrances.... "

{Taken from page 75 under the section entitled SURFACE MATERIALS}

"Street paving, begun in the 1830s and completed within two decades, employed cobblestones. Granite curbing and flagged sidewalks served a largely pedestrian traffic, while granite runners spanned many of the intersections in order to facilitate moving large casks from the harbor to the various processing centers in the area. The introduction of horse-drawn street cars in 1872 required repaving some sections of William, North Second, and Middle Streets along which the tracks were laid. Belgian blocks subsequently replaced the worn cobblestones of many streets, providing a smoother ride for carriage and, after 1900, automobile traffic. During the 1970s preservation efforts restored a running bond pattern of Belgian blocks to streets that had been paved with asphalt during the early decades of the twentieth century. Flagstone panels constitute the majority of paving materials installed in the property’s sidewalks and crosswalks. Ornamental borders consisting of various combinations of cobblestone, Belgian block, and brick bracket the sidewalk flagging. Extant circulation features that probably date to the period of significance are limited to the overall street pattern, a series of bluestone panels in the sidewalk that fronts the Double Bank building on Water Street, and the eastern section of the granite runners lining the southern side of Centre Street..."

{Taken from page 93 under the section entitled CIRCULATION & SURFACE MATERIALS}

Isn't research great! It's almost like a form of free association with one thing leading to the next & on to the next, sometimes I can't remember how I got on one track from the previous!