The new sidewalks and streetlights that are being installed have given a refreshing and much needed facelift to the downtown area of Groesbeck. As the downtown project has proceeded, great care has been taken to preserve historic features, such as the old hitching rings. Once used to secure the reins of horses during an earlier time, these iron rings were carefully removed from the old sidewalk and relocated in the new. Of course, one of the most attractive features downtown are the historic, brick streets. With the downtown project currently underway, information related to the laying of the Groesbeck bricks streets would be appropriate.
The City of Groesbeck entered into a contract with the Jaynes Contracting Company in November 1922 to lay 11,860 square yards of brick at a cost of $1.33 per square yard. The brick came from the coal mining and brick-making town of Thurber in Erath County and were larger and harder than ordinary building brick. The work was done during the spring of 1923. A five-inch base of concrete was poured, the bricks were laid by hand upon this base and then were rolled with a steamroller. Next a thin coating of hot asphalt was poured on the surface to run into the spaces between the bricks to seal them. The asphalt that remained on the surface has long since been worn away. On May 1, 1923, the work was accepted by the City of Groesbeck, and the contractor was paid. The total cost of the project was $15,733.80.