"In the late 1800's" is an introductory adverbial prepositional phrase. We can safely ignore it. All it does is modify the verb "were".
<h3>I hope it's helpful for you</h3>
Answer:
North Richmond Street, <u>being blind</u>, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free.
Explanation:
A participial phrase is a group of words that consists of a participle, its modifiers, and any objects that complete that thought.
Participles are words derived from verbs that can function as adjectives or parts of verb phrases. There are two types of participles:
- Past participles - they usually end in -ed (for regular verbs), and less often in -en, -t, -d, and -n (irregular verbs). Example:<em> bake - baked</em>.
- Present participles - they end in -ing. Example: bake - baking.
In the first sentence of the given excerpt, we have one participial phrase: <em>being blind</em>. It consists of the present participle <em>being</em> and a modifier <em>blind</em>.
