The ß is still widely used, it was only replaced with ss where preceded by a short vowel.German used ß 'es-zet' for double-s (think it' s been dumped recently) as in 'Straße' (Strasse), as did English up to the 17th century.
Brits (usually engineers) at my work were fond of addressing parcels to Max-Planckstrabe, for example, which just annoys the Germans. I've always felt that if you want to annoy the Germans, it should at least be deliberate.
The ß I'm using isn't, actually: it's the Greek letter 'beta'.