Camera in hand, I went out on the street Monday looking for the other two Toynbee tiles reported to be in downtown St. Louis by www.toynbee.net. This one is in the crosswalk between Starbucks and Macy's at 6th and Olive. The color saturation and contrast have been bumped up to make it more legible. Note the text at the bottom of this one. It appears to say, "You must make + glue tiles!! You! You must make + glue tiles!"It turns out that I've come late to this party. There have been a number of newspaper, radio and television features about this phenomenon. National Public Radio did a short piece about them in September 2006. There is one local news feature available on YouTube, from KSDK Channel 5 here in STL. There are web references to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer as early as 1983. Several other newspapers have reported on the mystery, including the New York Times in 1999.
The inventory published in toynbee.net four years ago reported that there is a Toynbee tile at 6th and Washington but I was unable to find it. The KSDK news report says that one is located at 7th and Market, which I will look for today if I can get away from the office.
More Toynbee tiles are found in Philadelphia than any other city. By a stroke of luck, my camera and I will be in Philadelphia next weekend.
TOMORROW: A Third Toynbee Tile Is Documented In Downtown St. Louis.
4 comments:
I found your post interesting today. I like the photo too but the narrative is compelling.
I got to fly last night. I mean I just dove in and flew. You can find out how on my blog post today.
I, too, have come late to this phenomena. How fascinating. I followed some of the earlier links and found one tht listed the cities on your post yesterday. Alas, none in the Twin Cities.
I remember one of these on 38th street between fifth and sixth avenue in NYC. I'm sure it was there in the 1977 timeframe because I was still new at the job.
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