Denver
Sidewalk
Stamps
The sidewalks of Denver are notoriously bad. They are uneven at best and non-existent at worst. If you use a wheelchair, push a stroller, have balance issues, or aren’t a 20-something hustling in cap hill you might find the sidewalks infuriating. One fantastic element of Denver sidewalks are these little bits of advertising that last for years. We moved to Denver during the pandemic, with a newborn baby. We also sold our car. This meant we spent countless hours walking our neighborhood. Exploring the world using our feet and noticing the details that surround us.
Jan 2024 Update
At some point, I would love to turn this into an interactive data visualization project. Reach out if you are a developer nerd wanting to collaborate. I would love to be able to sort by year and by concrete company quickly. I have included a few repeats in this update—the same concrete company in different years. The first one here is A.C. Toney. I love the typography of this stamp. The condensed type for “Cement Contr. Denver, Colo.”
Big O Cement Co is unique because it includes a phone number in the stamp. A detail I haven’t noticed in other cement stamps.
C. M Hoppes with a repeat nine years apart. It looks like the ‘74’ was drawn by hand while the 65 was not. I would love to see a version of the metal stamp that concrete companies use and how they integrate the last two digits of the year.
I love that Denver Public Schools had their own stamp for sidewalks. I would guess this is not the case anymore and that any sidewalk work is contracted out to different companies.
A sideways “m” is being used as a 3 in 1963.
I believe these are the most recent stamps I have come across both by FREDERIC CO in 2017. It is interesting that the year comes out very clearly in these stamps, but the rest of the text is difficult to read. Most of the older stamps reverse that. The year is tricky to read while the rest of the text comes out clear.
