Street construction exposes wood paver blocks that formed city’s roadways more than a century ago

A newly uncovered wooden road on East Banks Street between North Astor Street and North Ritchie Court in the Gold Coast neighborhood. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

Burim Baraku stood outside the Gold Coast building where he’s the doorman and imagined the hairstyles, hats and horses he’d see if he could go back in time maybe 150 years.

It wasn’t a random daydream. He was staring at the wood paver blocks unearthed as city work crews tore up the surface of Banks Street just west of DuSable Lake Shore Drive to repave the road.