… down Memory Lane, er,
Main Street. Before suburbs and big box stores, the main street was the heart of many towns. Out on the plains, main streets in many small towns probably began looking something like Crawford’s does in this image from the
Crawford Historical Society and Museum Collection. Not enough traffic to keep down the weeds yet, and wooden buildings under construction.
In towns that had been established for a little longer, the main streets became hardened dirt—unless there was enough rain to turn it into mud. And while there is still space between the wooden structures on Sacramento’s main street, progress can be seen in the signage on the buildings and the number of people in the picture. Image from the
Phelps County Historical Society Collection.
As more businesses and government buildings went up, amenities such as hitching posts became necessary. In this image of Ericson from the
Nebraska State Historical Society Collection, between the stores on one side of Main Street and the Post Office on the other a rope has been strung along several posts for wagon parking down the middle of the street. Notice that the buildings are all wooden structures.
Modern inventions like electricity and the telephone brought poles and wires to town. This image of Eagle’s Main Street shows poles down both sides of the street where it looks like paring for wagons and buggies is limited mostly to the west side of the street—or one business is really popular! Note that there is one brick building on the right-side of the street. This image is from the
Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors Collection.
By the 1930s most poles and lines have been banished to the alleys. And as seen on Fairmont’s Main Street, street lights have been installed in front of brick buildings. Hitching posts have disappeared and no parking meters have appeared as yet in this image from the
Fairmont Public Library/Fillmore County Historical Society Collection.
And over the years, big events in town took place on Main Street, like Fourth of July parades, political speeches, and the Calathumpian Parade shown here in Fremont. This image is part of the
Keene Memorial Library Collection.
Visit
Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials.
Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, or contact
Beth Goble, Government Information Services Director, or
Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.
