Cobblestone Pie

If the weather cooperates today and tomorrow -- which it isn't so far -- the Cambridge Department of Public Works will repave the stretch of Franklin Street between Western Avenue and Pearl Street. The street is in somewhat sorry shape, but the repaving is also a shame. Why? On the block right next to my house is a stretch of exposed granite paving stones.



Not far from where I grew up in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, there was an exposed patch of wooden paving blocks that the city's work crews left exposed as a reminder of what once was. Fingers crossed that the Cambridge DPW leaves at least some of the granite paving stones exposed -- either along Franklin Street or in the bus turnaround just off Green Street. To cover them up entirely would be a shame.