Solana Beach, California, USA

Defining Main Street: The Pet Groomers. Would you say that pet groomers and their ilk are recent additions to Main Street or old standbys? Their ilk? Pet supplies, doggie day care, vets, pet insurance?[2007]

Plattsmouth, Nebraska, USA

Defining Main Street: The Hobby Shop. The hobby shop takes different personas in different places. Here it is a quilt shop, a place where customers can buy patterns and materials to make their own quilts. (plus classes and books). What big-box stores have taken the place of the hobby shop in modern suburbia? [2009]

Newport, Rhode Island, USA

Defining Main Street: The Clothing Store. September arrives. The school year begins, Where do you go the get back-to-school duds? Main Street of course. That is, until shopping centers offer a wider variety of styles and options, And, until the bonds of geography are cut by automobility. Here's a clothing store that has made the transition to a new market. [2008]

Ramona, California, USA

Defining Main Street: The Real Estate Office. As we review of the elements of Main Street, let's not ignore the more mundane: establishments like the real estate office. There when you need it, invisible when you don't. [2013]

Dillon, Montana, USA

Defining Main Street: The Bookstore. There was a time when only big cities had bookstores. Then, shopping malls multiplied their numbers. And then, big-box stores shot onto the scene, and some of them were devoted to books. Recently, Amazon deliveries and digital purchases have come to dominate. Meanwhile, the Main Street book store chugs along. [2020]

Covina, California, USA

Defining Main Street: The Jewelry Store. Locally owned and operated jewelry stores seem to survive longer on Main Street than most other operations. Often they have a clock outside. If that box of chocolates didn't quite do the trick yesterday, maybe you should have tried the jewelry store. [2015]
 

Keene, New Hampshire, USA

Defining Main Street: The Candy Store. Happy Valentine's Day! Did you remember? If not, better head to your Main Street candy shop. Have you noticed how candy stores are re-appearing in those newly-built town centers that are modeled on streets like this? [2009]

Findlay, Ohio, USA

Defining Main Street: The Grocery Store. General stores gave way to more space-consuming grocery stores which came to be located farther and farther from the main intersections of towns. Remember, the generation of stores that developed right after World War II had to be within walking distance of its customers. Cars were not ubiquitous. [2008]

Sturgis, South Dakota, USA

Defining Main Street: The Pizza Shop. Even without a full-scale restaurant, most Main Streets will proudly proffer a pizza shop. This one must max out its potential during the Sturgis Bike Rally. But, do you think the breakfast buffet is all-you-can-eat pizza? [2019]

Howell, Michigan, USA

Defining Main Street: The Restaurant. It is hard for suburbs to duplicate the ambiance of Main Street restaurants. Still, in most small towns it will be hard to find more than one or two full-service eateries like this. Does "seafood" capture the essence of place in a setting surrounded by Great Lakes? [2018]

Ennis, Montana, USA

Defining Main Street: The Bank. The frontier bank was immortalized by Louis L'Amour: "The bank was opposite the store, and the building next to the store was the express office. A man placed there could cover the door of the bank and the side door as well." All banks needed to be defended, the one in this quote appeared in his novel Son of a Wanted Man. [2003]

Ottawa, Kansas, USA

Defining Main Street: The Drug Store. Some of us just cannot get used to calling them pharmacies or (if you are in England) chemists. So few independent pharmacies are left on Main Street. The national chains seem to have taken over, and they are committed to the suburbs. [2021]

Farmland, Indiana, USA

Welcome to cognitive dissonance. Farmland is located in the North American Corn Belt. But, the grain elevator rising above Main Street just screams Wheat Belt, and the mural suggests there might just be a Tomato Belt somewhere nearby. [2018]

Muzaffarnagar, India

Muzaffarnagar is a name that does not settle well onto Anglophone ears, nor easily lodge in the Anglophone mind. Yet, it is one of the most important interstitial cities of the Gangetic Plain. It is located about half way between New Delhi and the famed and fabled city of Dehradun in the Himalayan foothills. On the way north is the pilgrimage city of Haridwar. [2011]

White River Junction, Vermont, USA

Happy New Year! January has been the first month of the year since 153 BC. Before that (and in some parts of the West, long after that), the new year began in March. Which one seems more logical to you? [2022]

New Harmony, Indiana, USA

When New Harmony was founded by the pietist Harmonites in 1814, they sought a location isolated from the world. And, isolated it remains, even to this day. That wasn't enough for the Harmonites, though. They abandoned the town a decade after they founded it. The so-called Harmonites appear to have been malcontents. [2022]

Marion, North Carolina, USA

Few people were on the streets two years ago in Marion. Those who were wore masks. By that point in the Covid-19 epidemic, just five months in, more than 156,000 people in the United States had died of Covid-19. By January of 2021, five months in the future, the number of deaths had increased to almost 357,000. Now, it's over a million. [2020]

Marion, North Carolina, USA

Few people were on the streets two years ago in Marion. Those who were wore masks. Five months previously, only one person in the United States had died of Covid-19. When this picture was taken (exactly two years ago), the number nationwide was up to more than156,000. [2020]

Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, USA

Berkeley Springs is one of the great arts towns of the Appalachians. So, a colorful mural is an appropriate addition to the downtown landscape. Right across the street are the springs themselves. They have been attracting visitors since colonial times. [2021]

New Harmony, Indiana, USA

Window washing cranes have become almost ubiquitous. They are perfect for Main Street communities where the high-rises are not very high. Plus, they are useful for all kinds of building upkeep. And, it seems like everybody who walks by wants a ride. Compare with scaffolding. [2022]