Friday, May 4, 2012

Philadelphia Archeology: The Search For Toynbee Tiles

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Toynbee Tile 9th and Market

We spent a couple of hours yesterday hunting for Toynbee tiles. I've rambled on about this obsession before. There were four in St. Louis but two have been paved over. Philadelphia has by far the most and is thought to be the point of origin. They are apparently cut from linoleum, placed between sheets of tar paper and placed on the pavement at the beginning of hot summer days. The traffic presses them down into the warm asphalt and wears away the tar paper.

There are variations on the tile technique in Philly. We saw several of what the locals call Stickman. The bottom tile is in German. It translates as "I'm sorry" in English.

Train to New York this afternoon.  

Two Toynbee Tiles and Stick Man 12th and Market

Toynbee Tile Poor Condition Ranstead And Chestnut

Toynbee Tile 16th and Chestnut

Toynbee Tile 19th and JFK

House Of Hades 16th And JFK

Stickman 9th and Market

Stickman Ranstead - Cross Street Not Noted

Monetize Broad And Spruce

Es Tut Mir Lied, 12th and Market

1 comment:

William Kendall said...

Okay, that's officially very odd.