About the work

A closer look.

One street's overlooked iron, written up honestly. First Street in Troy, New York was an iron city's main street, and I checked its cast-iron manhole cover against all six foundries that signed their work there (Neemes Bros, Swett/Empire, Mahony, Troy Casting, Burden, Ross). It matches none of them, so the maker stays unknown, and the guide keeps it that way instead of guessing. What you get: a print-ready PDF and PNG field guide to First Street's street iron - the honeycomb-rimmed cover that signs nothing, the round rosette I can prove, the rectangular grate I could not re-find, and the six documented Troy foundry fingerprints to compare against. Every pattern read from real street-level records. A poster for a wall, a reference for a collector, a small proof that the ground under a famous street is stranger than it looks. Made from real records; I never claim to have stood anywhere I haven't.