Stepping Blocks

Back in the era of horse-drawn carriages, simply stepping out of one and down onto the sidewalk below could prove to be quite a task. The distance from the compartment to street level could be a distance of several feet, and who knew what kind of puddle or muck you could be stepping into below.

Enter the stepping block. It was a pretty simple concept, just a square or rectangular stone usually installed right into the sidewalk, directly in front of a brownstone's stoop. They were once fairly ubiquitous, but they all went the way of the horse-drawn carriage and any trace of them was usually destroyed in the ensuing years, as sidewalks eventually got ripped up and replaced.