ha ha! I was right.

I believe they are shoe cleaners from the olden times.

Those are boot scrapers when when the streets were lined with. . . horse poop

I mean from when the streets...

Foot scrapers from ye olden days.

They would "take the shit" from the shoes...

I had the feeling that's what they were...

It's an old boot scraper. Some old Harlem houses have them, too. Not uncommon at all.

Boot Scrapers - very necessary for 19th century homes - think horse and carriage transportation and the misfortune of stepping in horse manure. Streets tended to collect mud and filth, too.
I live in Upstate New York in a late 19th century Victorian home converted into small lofts - but there's still a marble hitching post for horses in front of the house.

very common in philly too.
uggh could you imagine the streets being so dirty that you had scrape your shoes every time you entered a building. ugh.

Wow...very neat. I love learning new things!

Yes definitely boot scrapers. There are many of these outside old Dublin houses in Ireland.

Oh. I thought it was for the horses - to tie them. oops.

Ditto on the boot scrapers. In Brussels there are homes which have a semi-circular hole carved out of the stone so that the scraper was hidden away. Very neat, and usually part of the Nouveau design.

dang! someone already answered. and here i thought my Wyoming upbringing would finally pay off on the AT website. Funny though, I just had a conversation with my gf last weekend about boot scrapes when we walked past a church that had them.

Too bad they went away with modernism and all... here in NYC, we could sure use one of those to scrape nasty gum and dog turds from our soles.

On a related note, I remember seeing similar things along cobbled tree-lined streets outside of brownstones, and was told that those were to strap horses... were there other items use to strap horses back in those days, or was the native having fun at my expense?

They have these in Belgium, too.

i'm with wonderboy- i thought my time spent in a horse barn was finally going to pay off!
you know, maybe we still need them. the mounted police here let their horses poop everywhere, which makes sitting outside at a cafe in the summer time occasionally very, um, fragrant. what do mounted police do about poo in other cities?

yep...that's a boot scraper!

I love these boot scrapers! I'm not sure why I love them so much (it's the little things, huh?) but every time I walk through Beacon Hill and see them they make me smile.

....Given the need for such a device, and the likelihood that it is only partially effective, is exactly is why I never understood the Western custom of leaving shoes on when one is indoors.

yeah! i saw those all over providence, ri when i was living there. I thought they were to tie up horses... still learning something new every day!

Herein Portland many of the old sidewalk curbs have "horse rings" in them, right next to the street. Hence, this ongoing art project:
http://www.horseproject.net/

fjorlief - you beat me to it! I was just going to mention the Portland horse rings.

In contemporary times, they also work to scrap the snow/ice/slush off your boots in the winter time...

Another interesting Beacon Hill feature are hand rails on the sides of somebuildings to hold onto when climbing the steep streets during the winter. They can be a real life saver!

I believe that "weird iron thing" you are referring to is a 'boot scrape'. It's used to clean the bottom of your boots/shoes before you enter the premises.