As the Ada County Highway District replaces worn sidewalks in Boise's oldest neighborhoods, the historic stamps - signatures of contractors who laid the concrete - are a vanishing icon.

But many are still left around the city's North and East ends, and the Boise Bench. The oldest date to 1908. Some are handwritten. Some include designs, even drawings of trees.

The "gold standard" of sidewalk stamps are the brass stamps left in sidewalks in the 1940s by the Works Progress Administration.

Local photographer Peter Oberlindacher made it his mission to photograph as many sidewalk stamps as possible. Some cities, including San Diego, have policies to preserve their sidewalk marking. The City of Boise bought several of Oberlindacher's photographs for inclusion in the Boise Visual Chronicle, the city's art collection.

Anna Webb: 377-6431