Delavan’s main street, Walworth Avenue, remained unpaved from the 1830’s until the second decade of the 20th century, dusty and rutted in dry spells and muddy and miserable in wet weather. In 1911, the city council voted to pave the three-block central business district and chose brick as the preferred material, contracting with the Birdsall-Griffith Company of Racine to install the street for $19,198.18. Thirty laborers graded the street, poured the concrete base, and installed a two-inch layer of sand, after which skilled Italian immigrant workers laid the bricks in a running bond pattern along the street and a herringbone pattern at the intersections. Completed in 1913 in durable, waterproof vitrified brick resistant to wear, the street was hailed as a major transportation improvement, has remained in continuous use since installation, stands as one of the last and best examples of brick-paved roadway in Wisconsin, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.