Arnold Toynbee, 2001 A Space Odyssey, resurrection on Jupiter? Yes, that's the key idea in Toynbee tiles. This one is in the pavement near the northeast corner of 6th and Olive, beside the Starbucks.
They are found here and there across the northeast quarter of the US, most of all in Philadelphia, where they are believed to have originated. There were four in St. Louis. The city paved over two of them a couple of years ago during regular street maintenance, oblivious to their value (I would have paid the city streets department to save them for me).
The back story is complicated and uncertain. I did a series about them on St. Louis Daily Photo about them four years ago. The first post with as much information as I could find is here. My second find, the one pictured above, has more research and can be found here. This post, with info about tiles in other cities in in this post. The badly deteriorated fourth one is here.
They are found here and there across the northeast quarter of the US, most of all in Philadelphia, where they are believed to have originated. There were four in St. Louis. The city paved over two of them a couple of years ago during regular street maintenance, oblivious to their value (I would have paid the city streets department to save them for me).
The back story is complicated and uncertain. I did a series about them on St. Louis Daily Photo about them four years ago. The first post with as much information as I could find is here. My second find, the one pictured above, has more research and can be found here. This post, with info about tiles in other cities in in this post. The badly deteriorated fourth one is here.
Have any of you seen Toynbee tiles in your city?
