Bootscrapers on the Doors in Our Neighborhood

This post is about one of the least significant but most profound features of the buildings in our neighborhood. This posting is about boot scrapers.Many of the old buildings have a boot scraper situated in the doorway. The boot scraper is usually a hollowed out stone fitted with a metal blade that is located at sidewalk level. They are conveniently located for folks to scrape off their boots before entering the apartment building.

Now, the only place I'd ever seen boot scrapers before was on the back porch steps of farm houses in Indiana. This I could understand due to the hazards of mud and pig manure. Why the scrapers in Strasbourg? I am not sure. Perhaps it is because at the time the of construction, the roads were as often mud as not. Or perhaps the roads were not muddy but the horses left plenty of surprises to step into. Or perhaps there were as many dogs soiling the sidewalks then as there are now.Many of the doorways have the hollowed out stone but the metal blade is gone - long ago rusted away I suppose. These are just a few of the variety of scrapers that remain.