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CITY OF DUBOIS Page 167
The paving was laid from the bridge at the creek on
North Brady Street and on Long Avenue west to Main Street. It was
successful in lifting the central part of the town out of the mud.
The difficulty with this paving was that it wore out
rapidly. In the fire of 1888 the surface was considerably burned and
when the street car line cut the center out of it to lay its tracks,
it shattered the paving considerably and it became so worn that the
spikes used in the construction work, were quite annoying to horses.
In 1891 the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an Act
authorizing all municipalities, including boroughs, to pave streets,
set curbs, construct sewers and to do other public work of that
character and charge the cost thereof to the abutting properties.
Meantime the manufacture of vitrified brick for paving purposes had
been started and brick plants sprang up in western Pennsylvania.
In 1896 it became apparent that wood pavement was no
longer a success and the Borough decided to re-lay this pavement
with vitrified brick. However, the municipality could not collect
the cost of reconstructing this pavement from the abutting property
owner, for the reason that it had assumed the burden of paving prior
to the passing of the Act of 1891, but it could collect the cost of
setting the curb. The Borough Council then moved to repave these
streets and also to fill North Brady Street from the bridge to the
Iron Works.
North Brady street had become very expensive on account
of the increase of the cost of lumber. A bond issue was voted by the
electors of the City to pay for this work. Mr. John E. DuBois loaned
his lumber railroad to the Borough and gave them the dirt on his
land to fill this street. The street car company was induced to move
its line into the center of the street and to pay for the paving
between the tracks. During the summer of 1896 this street was
filled. It was not intended to pave it until it had settled for a
year. However, the citizens, contemplating what they would have to
do in getting to and from the freight station, induced the Council
to lay the pavement on the new fill. This proved very successful and
it was not re-laid until 1919.
The Borough, once having started a system of paving,
was soon induced to extend the paving by petitions from other parts
of the City. East Long Avenue was paved to Stockdale Street; South
Brady Street to Weber Avenue, and finally, when the township road in
Sandy Township was reconstructed the Borough succeeded in getting
the State to pave South Brady Street from Weber Avenue south to the
Borough limits, the Borough paying 25% and the State paying 75%.
Thus has the paving continued until DuBois is fairly out of the mud.
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