Ever notice these building blocks?

RUSTICATED CONCRETE BLOCKS – or rock-faced blocks are hollow and shaped to imitate stone. The product of new technology, they enjoyed a time of popularity – the 1900s through '20s – nationwide and in Frenchtown. Although there were plenty of commercial manufacturers of the blocks, you could also DIY with a $50 Sears Wizard Block-Maker.

The blocks' heyday coincides with the proliferation of the automobile, which is why this faux stone material was used in building Eichlin's Pontiac dealership on Harrison Street in 1922 and two big automotive repair shops – Theodore Zielstorff's auto-repair shop in 1912 and Apgar's Garage in 1913.

The Zielstorff building at 3 Trenton Avenue just used them to dress up the facade, and when Sarge Russell gave the building a makeover in 1984, he appreciatively repurposed these blocks around his property.

Apgar's Garage is now the Frenchtown Home & Hardware store. Although the blocks have been covered with siding, some of them can be seen if you look at the east or west sides of the building.

The house at 44 Everittstown Road has a detached garage made of the blocks, and the house itself is an unusual and pleasing combination of rusticated block and red brick. Owner Joel Boriek says the house was built in the late 1920s.

In other non-automotive contexts, the blocks were used in Worman's circa-1915 building on the southeast corner of Bridge Street and Trenton Avenue and to build Hillpot's Hatchery on Upper Seventh Street in 1915.

When porches were added or repaired during those decades, the brown blocks were used. These can be seen at 214 Harrison Street, 15 Third Street, 15 Fourth Street, 9 Trenton Avenue and at 501 Harrison Street. The owner of that house, maybe Dr. Frank Grim, liked the blocks so much that he used them to build a low wall along the Fifth Street side of his property and to add a kitchen ell.

The blocks were also used to add a front porch onto the old Christian Church on Kingwood Avenue when it was converted for residential use, and also at the base of the columns in front of the Frenchtown Inn.