Greenfield Village, Michigan, USA

Defining Main Street: The Nostalgia. Let's end where we began, with Sinclair Lewis. Main Street was the most influential component of American urbanism for more that a century. Do you think it will ever be eclipsed by nostalgia for strip malls, retail strips, big-box stores, or shopping malls? [2008]

Ogden, Illinois, USA

Defining Main Street: The Post Office. You can buy local goods and services along Main Street, but one particular federal service has been part of the line-up since colonial times: the post office. A declining number still boldly display the name of the towns they serve. If your building has been stripped of its toponym, work to bring it back: Be like Ogden, Illinois. [2015]

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]

Sisseton, South Dakota, USA

Defining Main Street: The Insurance Office. Again, let's not ignore the more mundane: establishments like the insurance office. And, humor always helps to attract attention. What other elements of Main Street culture might also be over looked? Attorneys? Funeral homes? [2007]

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]

St. Clair, Pennsylvania, USA

Defining Main Street: The Church. There are usually no shortage of churches on Main Street, and the state's downtowns usually exhibit some of the richest combinations of denominations anywhere in the world. Why? Read a biography of William Penn. [2017]

Danville, Illinois, USA

Defining Main Street: The Fire Station. When we fall in love with a main street archtype and love services it performs, it is hard to cast it on the dumpheap of history. Fire houses, for instance, are often converted to other uses, turned into museums, or simply preserved for their exterior delights. [2015]

Bath Center, Ohio, USA

Defining Main Street: The Public School. What set the stage for public schools in the United States? The Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647. It mandated community schooling in Massachusetts so that everyone would grow up being able to read the Bible for themselves. A few Main Street schools like this survive, but most have suburbanized. [1995]

Eyota, Minnesota, USA

Defining Main Street: The City Hall. If a place is incorporated under the laws of the state, it must have a municipal building. In the case of cities, these administrative headquarters are probably called city halls. In the past, their architecture was almost always meant to command respect. What to you think of the Eyota city hall's public face? [2019]

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]

Ritzville, Washington, USA

Defining Main Street: The Public Library. Although the public library had been well established in American life by the 1880s, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie added jet fuel to the building trends. If a local community would support a public library, he would built it. Yes, architectural standards were in force. [2019]

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]

Burlington, Vermont, USA

Defining Main Street: The Tea Shop. Tea brings the world to Burlington. While tea shops are less common than coffee shops on America's Main Streets, they always add a touch of refinement. Still, they can't keep up with the new trifecta of beverage purveyors: breweries, distilleries, and cideries. [2009]

Boulder City, Nevada, USA

Defining Main Street: The Coffee Shop. In the 21st century, towns are judged according to whether they have a coffee shop or not. Cities are judged by how many coffee shops they have. Here's the inconvenient truth, though: Coffee shops were all but dead until Starbucks started to expand in the 1990s. [2019]

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]

Marietta, Georgia, USA

Defining Main Street: The Movie Theater. First there was the opera house, then there was the movie theater, and then there was streaming. Home town cinemas have survived only when they have found a dedicated preservationist movement or a niche market to serve. [2013]

Lykens, Pennsylvania, USA

Defining Main Street: The Train Station. Rail lines were lifelines for most small towns, where train depots served passenger and freight interests. Proof of their iconic status: All those 20th-century Christmas tree yards that featured Lionel or Bachman choo-choos always had a snap-together rail depot to authenticate the townscape. [2022]

Durango, Colorado, USA

Defining Main Street: The Hotel. Lucky is the town with an historic hotel on Main Street. The rail lines, the regional economy (in this case mining), and local entrepreneurial ambition were usually the three factors that sustained such operations in the late 1800s. [2013]

Courtland, Kansas, USA

Defining Main Street: The Gas Station.  The "fillin' station" didn't hit Main Street until the 1920s. They were never in the heart of the business district but further down the road. Almost all are now gone, or in decay, victims of economies of scale. [2009]

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]

Spencer, Indiana, USA

Defining Main Street: The Barbershop. Every Main Street has (or had) a barbershop, but they don't all look alike. This one seems to have been custom-built in a vacant lot between brick buildings. Maybe you would like to stop for a haircut and meet one of the barbers who works here, in Spencer, Indiana. [2017]

Sauk Centre, Minnesota, USA

Defining Main Street: The History.  Sinclair Lewis did not sentimentalize Main Street in his novel by the same name. Today, we do. We glorify it. We have even shaped our country's newly-built "town centers" as Main Street mimics. Because of its importance, we will spend all month on Main Streets trying to appreciate both their diversity and their unity. [2012]