Laying Down History, Brick By Brick

In 1885 a Unionist Kentucky Lawyer, Colonel Isaac Trabue, purchased hundreds of waterfront acres in southwest Florida to promote the coming of the Southern Florida Railway. He platted a town there and called it Trabue after himself.

The town is no longer named Trabue but one of its streets bears his name in his honor.

Trabue Avenue is located in the historic district of town and is a bricked avenue. The bricks still bear the fingerprint marks where the laborers grabbed them from their molds while still wet nearly a century ago.

The bricked streets and avenues of this town could have been things of the past were it not for Brigadier General Rufus Lazzell and "Lazzell's Raiders".

In 1985 Lazzell and his "Raiders" stormed City Hall asking that the brick roads in town be saved and not be replaced by asphalt when repairs were made (City Hall said asphalt was a cheaper way to resurface after a repair). Lazzell and the "Raiders" volunteered to pick up the bricks, clean them and stack them before the repair and relay them after the repair. City Hall agreed. The City Council eventually passed a resolution to save all bricked streets.

Since then, 14 blocks of brick streets have been torn out and replaced. The last time was 8 years ago until Saturday, January the 8th.

The Colonel and I were there to help relay the bricks as well as a few dozen others, including General Lazzell.

I handled a couple dozen bricks between my camera shots. Soon the street's workspace became too crowded with volunteers, so I stepped away and concentrated on my picture taking. The Colonel continued working.

Volunteer workers knelt upon the bricks that they had already laid as they placed the next row onto the sandy base of Trabue Avenue. After a couple of rows had been added to the avenue a landscape timber would be placed against the bricks and a man with a sledge hammer would hit the timber to knock the bricks into a straighter and tighter pattern.

There were other volunteer workers who were sweeping sand into the cracks between the bricks.

While The Colonel and I were there helping, about 40 feet of bricks were laid with plenty more to go.

A couple of ladies who lived on Trabue Avenue set up an awning in their driveway and had fruit, pastries, orange juice and water available for the volunteers. They were also going to have hot dogs for everyone when lunchtime rolled around (The Colonel and I left before lunchtime).

The Colonel and other volunteers continued working...

and I continued taking more pictures. I took a picture of this pretty house on Trabue Avenue.

The elderly couple who owned the house were watching the brick laying volunteers from the sidewalk and came up to me as I was standing there photographing their house. We started talking and they told me that their house was one of the original railroad workers' cottages from the late 1800's. There were two others still on Trabue Avenue. They invited me in to take a tour of the little house. It was small but quaint. They told me that I could come back for a visit and coffee any time.

The Colonel and I enjoy living in our little town. We like the slower pace, the small town feel and taking part in community events such as the rebricking of Trabue Avenue. It is nice to know that years down the road (no pun intended) when we drive down or walk along Trabue Avenue, we can say we helped rebrick it way back when.

Although we may not be able to see our fingerprint marks on the bricks, like those left by workers almost a hundred years ago, we know they are there.