My Toynbee Tile Obsession: A Third Located In St. Louis

Web sources say that there are three Toynbee tiles in St. Louis. I located this one yesterday at the intersection of 7th and Market Streets. Again, I must have walked over it hundreds of times.

This tile is the most deteriorated of the three but has the most extra text at the bottom. Here's as much as I can make out:

...der F.O.I.A, N.B.C. journalists funneled F.B.I information on meto sov...c, b...reau...ious...on attempt pr...ordinate so...ton mese...

F.O.I.A refers to the Freedom of Information Act, a U.S. law that requires federal government agencies to reveal information to the public on demand, with exceptions for personal data or matters related to national defense and security. For our visitors from other countries, N.B.C. is one of our major television networks. Are there any linguists out there who can fill in the obliterated words?

Toynbee.net states that tiles exist in these cities: Philadelphia (possibly the original location), Pittsburgh, New York, Baltimore, Aberdeen, Maryland, Edgewood, Maryland, Washington, DC, Columbus, Toledo, Cincinatti, Cleveland, Boston, Atlantic City, Bellmawr, NJ, Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Detroit, Mottville, MI, and, of course, St. Louis.

Three tiles have been reported in South America, in Rio de Janeiro, Santiago and Buenos Aires. Karine and Ale, the BsAs tile is said to be at the intersection of Avenida de Mayo, Rivadavia and Parana.

I'd like to see photos of Toynbee tiles from CDPBers in these areas. Please e-mail me or post a comment on my site if you do so. This is enough on the topic from my city for now. If I locate other tiles in STL, I may report at another time. And, as I mentioned yesterday, I'll be in the tiles home town, Philadelphia, this weekend. Might post something next week about my findings.

This whole business has taught me something about my own perception, or lack of it; what I notice and don't notice.


TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series

A Second Toynbee Tile

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.

CDPB CHALLENGE: Toynbee Tiles

Attention amateur detectives, conspiracy theorists and devotees of the unknown:

I was crossing the intersection of 8th and Market Streets in downtown St. Louis a few days ago, a place I've walked thousands of times, when my eye fell on a spot of color in the street. What's this? It was made of some kind of tile embedded in the pavement. Toynbee...Kubrick...Jupiter?

No idea what this meant so it was Google to the rescue. It turns out to be a bizarre international phenomenon, the subject of much study and speculation. These mysterious tiles have a site that catalogs known locations and provides other references. Many have been destroyed in the course of routine road maintenance. There are reports that some cities, such as New York and Chicago, have deliberately attempted to erradicate them. By far the greatest number are found in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, there is no CDPB in Philadelphia. Now, if someone was waiting for a reason...

The game's afoot, Watson! The other two reported St. Louis locations are downtown and I will attempt to photograph them at once. CDPBers of the World, are there one or more Toynbee Tiles in your city? Let's see them.

TOMORROW: Will Strangetastes Find Other STL Tiles?