Pretty much ever town started the same way. A main street, quite often leading to a train station. http://www.crowwinghistory.org/brainerd_street_views.html ht

Pretty much ever town started the same way. A main street, quite often leading to a train station. http://www.crowwinghistory.org/brainerd_street_views.html http://www.crowwinghistory.org/brainerd_street_views.html Along that main street you had mix buildings where people lived and did their business out of. There was no separation between living and commercial. Farmers lived further out, not directly connected to the city. From there cities cities grow incrementally up and incrementally out. At some point they stop. Brainerd now has the same amount of people as they did 70 years ago. Other cities, like New York sustained that phase much longer.