Filed under the category “Have you ever wondered what those things are?”
A few days ago, my wife came back from walking the dog, noting “You know that rock in our sidewalk? Well, they painted it orange.” It took me a minute to think of the rock she was talking about. There are three 6” square granite blocks at different places along our property line, and one of them had gotten painted fluorescent orange as a worker was measuring the location of a utility line.
I’d always believed these to be survey marks, but wanted to confirm, so I contacted the Planning dept. Sure enough, they are in fact metes and bound markers – surveyed, established, and known points off of which a surveyor can identify property boundaries, measure the location of utilities, etc. You can see them throughout many of Newton’s villages, and even along the midline of the Cochituate Aqueduct.
Apparently stone bounds (like to ones shown here) are City bounds and could have been installed as long as 150 years ago or within the past 20 years. According to Planning, they would have typically been installed to identify a City right-of-way.
Interestingly, some folks around the City have said they don’t think these are in their specific village. Is it possible that some of the older/newer villages aren’t measured out in this fashion? Do you have these lovely granite mini-monuments in your neighborhood?
So why was it suddenly painted orange?
Don’t know yet, but I’ll let you know if they start ripping up Woodward St.
Why did they paint it????
We don’t really know yet. Clearly a worker marked it so they could find it again. Typically this means that they are measuring off of that point to try and figure out where utility line is. Then they will come back later and work on that line.
There is one on the Cochituate Aqueduct very close to Beethoven Ave that is smack in the middle of the path and sticks up more than most. For a long while, it was covered with an orange pylon. The pylon disappeared, and I almost tripped over it a few times jogging through here until I reflexively began avoiding it. It was then painted orange, which I assumed was a safety measure to alert people to its presence (if so, it’s due for another coat of paint). The city must really value this one to leave it in place or to not give it a “trim”.
The ones pictured above are not as much of a trip hazard and I’ve seen many like this around Waban/Highlands, usually abutting the sidewalk, occasionally painted.
Perhaps they’re building a moat to keep the people of Waban out of the Highlands….or vice versa.
I’ve only noticed one anywhere in Upper Falls. It’s at the bottom of Ellis St near the corner of Hemlock Gorge.
Here’s a goofy and unrelated story about orange painting by utility workers. We just had a water line installed on our street.. First a city crew turned up and marked where they would be digging with white spray paint. The next day a small truck pulled up. I think it was some kind of private contractor with a sign that said “Utility Services” or something like that. He got out and spray painted a few letters in orange spray paint on the leaves on the dirt on the other side of the road. As soon as he left I checked it out and it was completely unintelligible since it was painted on leaves. By the time the work crew showed up a few days later to do the work, the leaves had all blow away.
I’ve seen these in Norumbega Park in Auburndale.
I have one in my driveway in West Newton.
BTW, folks, I think it’s worth noting that it’s great to have Chris Steele back here as a blog post contributor.
Also notable, although I know he’s tall, it appears he may have rented a small air plane to take these photos.
I agree Greg. It’s great to have Chris contributing his bird’s eye view of Newton issues again.
Thanks guys!
There is one at the end of our driveway in Newton Centre on Rachel Rd.