Yesterday, in downtown L.A. I was walking past the California Club approaching the central public library, when I noticed this peculiar post-like object protruding from the sidewalk. Is it a hitching post, left over from the days of carriages and hansoms, or placed there at a later date to recall the days when the horse was preeminent in urban transport?
I should probably point out that the California Club, which dates back to the 1880s, seems to be a fairly typical example a private city club, although this current clubhouse goes back no farther than 1929. Even so, their earliest premises did comprise several rooms that happened to be over a livery stable.
I’d love to know what this thing is. The “neck” near the top seems like it would have been well suited for tethering a horse at least briefly. On the other hand, it seems less practical for accommodating several horses at once. To the best of my knowledge, no currently standing buildings in this immediate neighborhood date back far enough to have ever needed a hitching post. Nonetheless, the neighborhood itself goes back at least as far as the American takeover.
I don’t think it’s a hitching post because of the panel at the bottom, which look to me like an electrical access panel, which a hitching post wouldn’t have. Of course, there’s nothing obviously electric on it, so this may be way off base. Perhaps there was a light at some time in the past.
ETA: Is the top rounded bit a solid surface? No holes in the top that might be for a bubbler?
If it has a hole near the top, which it kinda looks like it might when I brighten the image, then my guess would be an ashtray. Someone needs to pick up the butts around it though.
I didn’t notice the cover plate myself, until I looked at my own photograph. But I can tell you there are no perforations in the post, nor any lenses or translucent material that would be found on a light. “Ashtray” does seem like a good guess, especially given the profusion of discarded cigarette butts, but said profusion merely results from the fact that you can’t smoke indoors anymore–which, IIRC, even includes private clubs that have employees.
The object is definitely fixed to the pavement.
I suppose I could just write to the club and ask them, but the suspense from wondering if they would deign to respond would kill me. And they don’t seem to have an email address.
WAG - it might be a security post to prevent vehicles from driving around the area or crashing through the door. The panel at the bottom would allow access to bolt it into the concrete.
But then security posts designed to prevent someone driving through the area are almost always painted yellow or some other bright color, filled solid with cement, and concreted into the pavement. Anything hollow and merely bolted down wouldn’t be strong enough, I’d think.
Anyhow, I’m going to ask about this elsewhere, and if I get an answer I’ll post it here.
While searching for some examples I learned that the posts I refer to are called “Bollards” - that opened up the search possibilities and now I find many that look very much like the mystery pole in this thread. Check out the various styles at The Bollard Shop.
That doesn’t mean that is what this post was intended to be used for but not being bright yellow and/or strong enough to stop a speeding freight train doesn’t rule out the possibility.
This was my first guess. We have one in town planted in a sidewalk between a parking lot and a public park to prevent cars from driving on the walkway. It is removable with a special key so authorized vehicles can easily gain access.
