Updated 8/23/25 8:40 p.m. – Roy Nosek suggested that it should be noted that “those are the original BARR pavers that covered Whitewater Street when I first served on the Common Council and I tried to preserve but were unfortunately removed and replaced with the current concrete street and later squandered at a city summer auction. A picture of a parade down Main Street by Fran Achen used to hang in Jessica’s restaurant and may still.”
Roy Nosek happened to be downtown when Main Street was torn up for the recent replacement of the lead water lines. He was curious as to what materials might be found in previous layers of the street, so he asked a worker if he could get closer to the hole in order to take a photo. Though the employee didn’t want to take the risk of a resident falling into the hole, he did offer to take a few photos himself, which Dr. Nosek forwarded to The Whitewater Banner.
Director of Public Works Brad Marquardt kindly responded with the following analysis of the layers. “It appears from plans from 1963, the section between Whitewater Street and 2nd Street was raised. My guess is that Main Street in these two blocks had an existing section of concrete with the bricks laid on top. Then in 1963, when the curb and gutter was raised, they decided to just pave over the bricks. I do not have any plans indicating when the concrete/bricks were installed.”
Our thanks to both Roy Nosek and Brad Maquardt for providing an interesting historic view of our downtown Main Street.
