29
I was reading an old book about my town and found a wild fact about Main Street
I picked up a local history book from the library last week, just for something to read. It was about our town's early days in the 1880s. I got to the part about Main Street and it said the original road was only 12 feet wide. That's barely wider than my driveway. They had to widen it twice just to fit two wagons side by side. I walk down that street all the time and never thought about it being that narrow. It made me look at all the old buildings differently, thinking about horses and carts squeezing through. It's funny what you can learn from a dusty old book. Has anyone else found a surprising bit of history about where they live?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
roberts9517d ago
You know what's crazy about old roads? My uncle used to collect antique maps and he had one showing the old turnpike route. It had a toll booth right where the gas station is now on Route 9. They charged three cents for a horse and rider. Makes you wonder what else is buried under the pavement we drive on every day.
8
Forget the old books, they get half the story wrong anyway. My grandpa told me Main Street was always wide enough for a team of horses, they just wrote it down wrong in the town records. Those old histories love to make everything seem quaint and cramped. I bet if you actually measured some of the original foundations, you'd find they planned for a wider road from the start. People back then weren't stupid, they knew they'd need space.
6
lucasschmidt16d ago
The old firehouse on Elm Street was built with doors too narrow for the first motorized truck. They had to knock out part of the brick wall in 1912 to get it inside.
4