KNOXVILLE — A city curb crew replacing a section of sidewalk on Kingston Pike this month found one original WPA block standing an inch taller than the 4,312 the city’s 1937 ledger says were poured, leaving Public Works with a count it cannot reconcile and a block it cannot lower.
The block carries the same 1937 stamp as its neighbors. Ruth Cardwell, the materials historian who authenticated the last known White Stores cart, examined the stamp Thursday and pronounced it genuine. She described the block as “assertive.”
Public Works records show the block has been “logged, leveled, and left” on three previous occasions, most recently by a crew that ground it flush. Crew supervisor Dwight Kesterson said it was back to an inch by the following spring. “I don’t know what to tell you. We take it down, and it’s up. It’s not that it grows, exactly. I’ve measured it. It just doesn’t stay down. So we logged it again,” Kesterson said.
Marlene Poore, 68, who has walked that stretch to her dentist every six months since 1991, said she has stepped over the block more than sixty times. “I always figured it was on purpose,” Poore said. “I’ve never tripped on it. I’d say it’s the only part of that sidewalk that’s ever been looking out for me.”
The city has no record of anyone falling on the block in eighty-nine years. Public Works declined to say what a fourth attempt would involve.
The block remains in place, and the curb crew has been asked to step around it.