‘The most historic street in all of America’ is now covered in asphalt. Few are happy about it.

Williamsburg — A project to repave one of the most famous streets in the nation won’t be finished in time for a springtime ritual in these parts:

A stroll along Duke of Gloucester Street — or DOG Street, as it’s affectionately coined by locals.

Nearly a mile long and 100 feet wide, the pedestrian-only lane — the heart of Williamsburg’s restored area — has been walked by millions of visitors, including five presidents and Queen Elizabeth.

Franklin Roosevelt declared it “the most historic street in all of America.”

Locals savor its gardens, trees and benches, especially after a long winter — and none felt longer than this one.

But while DOG Street remains open, it doesn’t look so vintage these days, at least underfoot.

Keeping DOG Street pleasant to trod has special challenges: Concocting a surface tough enough to withstand lots of foot traffic — not to mention “iron tyred” carriage wheels — without spoiling the 18th-century ambiance.

Few are fond of the modern-looking asphalt visitors will encounter this year. It was poured last spring, the initial stage of DOG’s first repaving in at least 15 years.

“We had to do something,” said Ron Hurst, Colonial Williamsburg’s vice president for museums, preservation and historic resources. “The old surface was really shot. Full of potholes.”

The blacktop was supposed to be covered in the fall with a more suitable brown-ish aggregate overlay. But test sections of the material “didn’t perform well,” Hurst said.

It kicked up too much dust as it broke down, which happens quickly beneath the many horse-drawn carriages offering tourist rides.

Their wooden wheels are rimmed with iron, just like in days of old.

“That grinds up pavement pretty thoroughly,” Hurst said, “wearing tracks in everything we’ve used in the past.”

What about cobblestones? Isn’t that what colonials used?

Not in old Williamsburg, Hurst said. Cobblestones came along later in America and only in larger cities. The residents of Williamsburg never had the money for such a luxury, especially after the capital moved to Richmond in 1780.

“This was always just a sandy, dusty street,” Hurst said. “Literally dirt” that became a muddy mess during rain spells.

While resorting to bare ground again would be historically authentic, it’s too impractical. Even in dry weather, sand would be trekked by countless shoes into the carefully restored buildings where it “just completely wears out the floors,” he said.

A treatment called “double-shot” typically has been used in the historic area: brown pea gravel rolled into a layer of asphalt.

“It looks terrific,” Hurst said, but again, “the carriage wheels just obliterate it. We can’t have the street full of holes. It’s got to be a safe place to walk.”

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The city of Williamsburg owns DOG street and is covering the cost of the project — $115,000, according to a story in the Daily Press last year.

“We’re working with the city,” Hurst said, “and trying to find solutions.”

Oddly enough, the fact that yesterday’s Williamsburg could never afford such things as cobblestones became a blessing for today’s town.

After the Revolutionary War, most of Williamsburg’s businesses and many of its residents pulled up stakes, moving with the capital to Richmond. During the 1800s, the town basically slept.

“There was no money or reason to tear anything down and rebuild,” Hurst said, “and that was the saving grace.”

Hard times left a priceless collection of original buildings — nearly 100 — that formed the core of the living-history museum.

Joanne Kimberlin, 757-446-2338, joanne.kimberlin@pilotonline.com