1891-1918 Manhole Covers

A few weeks ago I was waiting for my girlfriend outside CHT and a manhole cover just in front of the building caught my eye.  I don’t normally walk around looking at manhole covers but this one caught my eye for what was written/stamped on the top.

As you can see by the picture these manhole covers are pretty old and somehow managed to survive the construction of CHT without disappearing or being destroyed.  Soon after, we walked up New Jersey Ave towards the Capitol and there were two more of the same type manhole covers (there is another one on the SW corner of NJ and L St). I started wondering if these Navy Yard covers were pretty prevalent in the area that time forgot about (Near SouthEast)...apparently not because I have only been able to locate four in/around New Jersey Ave.  There may be many more within the fence of the Navy Yard but I’ll post something on that as a follow-up if I ever get over there.

But it doesn't stop there.  On the corner of L St and 3rd St southeast (NE corner) one can view remnants of early DC's cobblestone streets.  In a picture from a book on DC alley life in 1908 it shows a cobblestone street in an alley.  In that picture there is a manhole cover that resembles the same design as the manhole covers above.  From that I can only speculate that the street corner shown below is no older than 1908.  Additionally, in 1925, there is a picture of that street corner that shows the cobblestone streets.  How this street corner with its cobblestone has never been paved over is quite amazing.  I can only hope that DDOT never paves over that small remaining patch of cobblestone - they tried to about a month ago but stopped just short.

 The significance of this picture is that the building in the picture, the Lowe House was eventually torn down and replaced by the non-descript building you see today.