April 27, 2004
Mysterious markers
The other day I noticed concrete markers along the south side of Route 13. I'd driven by them for years without seeing them, but suddenly they seemed to be everywhere.
Monuments at Ringwood Road and Route 13
The survey map for my own house includes one of these, though the marker is in my neighbor's property by a few feet.
Survey map, 1259 Dryden Road.
Based on this map, my guess is that the monuments indicate the southern edge of the right-of-way for the highway. I'm still not positive of that, though, because there are places where groups of markers (like those at Ringwood Road) appear. These markers aren't just indicating the edge of the highway.
Another possibility is that the monuments indicate tax map boundaries, as my property is in the corner of a tax map section, but the highway seems more likely. If you have an explanation, please leave it in the comments!
Posted by simonstl at April 27, 2004 08:37 AMNote on photos
These may be called Boundary Stones or Corner Stones. Surveyors once marked off property, township, and city boundaries in this way? I found your mention interesting, because I recall seeing these in our village community and had also wondered. I will have to take a look at Main Street today and see if the one I recall has been removed. I believe it had the Village name on it, though yours only had NY from what I can tell. Places where these may still be quite visible might include national or public preserves or parks?
A few links that may help shed a general light, though not answer your specific questions...
_One Such Marker - DC Boundary Stone, Southeast 4_
http://www.fairlington.org/Onesuch.htm
_Boundaries of the City - Past and Present_
http://www.btco.net/ghosts/oddsends/boundary/boundary.html
_Technology Breeds Birth of New Boundary Wars_
http://homes.wsj.com/buysell/regionalnews/20020814-forelle.html
It would be interesting to find a local historian or someone who could give a rough date for that stone, or investigate the history of the area? The closest dates I could find that were involved with boundary markers, late 1800's, 1880's - 1890's and the U.S. Geodetic Service. Before that they often used trees or existing stones as boundary landmarks?
Posted by: holly at April 29, 2004 07:01 AM