High curbs in old parts of town

Factual Questions
1

I was walking around downtown the other day and came across some sections with high curbs. These curbs are about knee to waist tall (I would guess about 3 ft high). I was just curious about what they were used for. Talking with the folks I was with we came up with:

  1. For loading and unloading horse drawn buggies, then later trucks. Although there were not many building too close, but they could have been torn down long ago.

  2. A buffer between pedestrians and the street traffic.

  3. High Opal?

  4. A place for people to sit and wait for the long gone trolley.

Number 1 is the one most of a agreed made the most sense, but I figured someone here will surely know the answer.

2

If it were any of these, I’m sure I’d be able to find some high curbs in the most historic areas of Washington DC, MD or VA.

More likely they just had to dig down deeper to get to some composition of earth that allowed for the building of a road, but IANAexpert on such things.

3

Perhaps the sidewalks were installed later and the surrounding property was 3+ feet higher then the steets

4

Something like to Loading Docks? Are the curbs in the commercial districts?

In the older towns in CA where I grew up, the high curbs would be towards the bottoms of grades. Otherwise, heavier rains would cause the water to flow over the curbs and into the buildings before it could drain off.

5

I can’t let a good pun go unacknowledged. High five to you Zap.

In regard to the point at hand, however, I’m inclined to agree with the second part of JCHeckler’s observation; That is if you live in an area with periodic heavy rains.

6

Does Houston get torrential rains? I seem to recall seeing a celebrity (Randy Travis?) on a talk show, who intimated that certain cities in Texas did this to provide for adequate drainage during thunderstorms. Could that be it?

Just my 2 cents.

7

Houston, like most all other cities in the Gulf area is in hurricane alley.
Yep, Houston’s been know to get heavy rains.

8

Thanks all, drainage seems to make the most sense, primarily because the area I am talking about has curbs that go a pretty good distance and does not appear like most of the loading docks I have seen.