Historical question: commuting and town layouts pre-automobile?

Submitted by LockedOutOfElfland t3_117nn1k in Maine

I notice that the residential areas of a lot of towns in Maine are spread out, with houses spaced far apart and often distant from the local grocers', town hall, library, etc.

This made me wonder about the ease of commutes between towns and/or between residential areas and downtown, or even between residential homes during the horse-and-buggy days (or on foot for folks who couldn't afford a horse and buggy).

Does anyone knowledgeable about Maine history know about the ease of travel within and between towns pre-automobile? Were the town layouts significantly different, or did residents simply have to "hoof it" between point A and point B?

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freeski919 t1_j9cs78u wrote

A lot of our towns are spread out because of agriculture. Either you're farming your land, which spreads you out.. or you've got your own spot on the coast for your fishing boat, which strings people along the shoreline.

150 years ago, you would find that every town had its own small grocer, dry goods/ general store, etc. It's not like today, where you might have to drive a half hour or more to the nearest supermarket.

There also wasn't the habit of stopping by the store to grab what you need for dinner tonight. You grew or caught much of what you needed when you were out on a farm or fishing, and only went to town for the stuff you didn't have. You went into town once a week for church, and then maybe once a month to shop. Otherwise, you were working your own land, and mostly interacting with the families farming around you.

The other pre-automobile factor you're not considering is the railroad. Before cars really took over, trains connected nearly every community to one another. Look around, you'll see tons of defunct rail lines crisscrossing the state. If you had to really travel, odds are a railroad had a stop within ten miles. From there, you'd take the train to Brunswick, Bangor, Lewiston, Portland, Boston, etc.

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AEKDBull t1_j9dob9g wrote

The Rail system was quite extensive (Link)

If you had a farm, you had a horse to get around locally.

IF you did manufacturing, you lived in mill owned housing and shopped at mill owned stores.

Coastal Maine has remained the same, with people living closer to, and working at, the ports. Unloading ships and loading them onto rails in Portland/Brunswick/Rockland/Eastport

North of the rail system was mostly the rough rural it still remains today. Think north of Greenville/Mt. Katahdin.

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LockedOutOfElfland OP t1_j9cse4p wrote

What about social spaces in town, like theatres or pubs?

Also, what would commuting between towns or cities have been like pre-railroad?

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freeski919 t1_j9cuxai wrote

Theaters were usually in larger towns and cities, like Ellsworth, Bangor, etc. So they were magnets that drew people from in and out of town.

Pubs relied on a mix of village residents, outlying folks on their occasional visit to the village, and travelers. Many pubs were inside, or near inns or boarding houses... Which in turn would be near the train station.

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Alternative-Crab-663 t1_j9f02i5 wrote

Not sure that’s entirely accurate. Small towns like Dexter and Dover-Foxcroft as well as Bucksport had, and some still have, theaters to this day.

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freeski919 t1_j9f13rq wrote

As I said, usually. There are exceptions to every statement.

That being said, Dover-Foxcroft is the county seat in Piscataquis, which draws people there.

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arclight222 t1_j9d2oot wrote

Pubs? Remember Maine had prolonged Prohibition. From 1851 to 1934 the manufacture and sale of alcohol in the state was completely banned. Either you made hard cider or distilled on your farm or you were friends with a Canadian, but no one was riding down to the pub for pints.

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LockedOutOfElfland OP t1_j9d6kwo wrote

What were other social spaces in Maine towns (not counting churches) at the time? Were there cafes and bakeries that people used as gathering spaces, for example?

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derpingandlurking t1_j9diuz6 wrote

Grange halls, mason halls, K of P/C, all sorts of social places, church, lots of town festivals etc

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200Dachshunds t1_j9ezpkp wrote

frankly, it was mostly churches. They were often the largest building with the largest comfortable enclosed gathering space in town, so not only would they be used for church services but also dances, dinners, voting, town meetings, private parties, etc. Church wasn't the 'statement' then that it is today. You went to church because everybody else went to church, and church served an incredibly important social bonding function.

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LockedOutOfElfland OP t1_j9ezxwf wrote

So there was nowhere else a person would have stopped at during non-work hours for a beverage, a prepared meal, or a snack plus conversation with whatever neighbors or out of town visitors they ran into?

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200Dachshunds t1_j9f5pjf wrote

Depends on how small a town you’re talking. For many people up to the age of attainable automobiles, the only place close enough to go to hang out during the very few hours you weren’t working on your land was the neighbor’s. Once a week you’d hook up your horse, put on your Sunday best, and go the three-five miles to church. Every couple weeks or once a month you’d hook up your horse and wagon and ride the 10-20 miles to a bigger town to buy the things you couldn’t grow/make/mend. Once a year you might take a train to the ‘big city’ of Bangor or Portland.

It would be different if you lived IN one of the middling or larger towns, but my dad grew up near Machias in the 50s and this was his schedule until he left for college. Most farming families would have it the same.

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BracedRhombus t1_j9goxmt wrote

Social spaces included the church, and most towns had at least one church. You knew you'd see everyone then, and could socialize a bit before going home. There would be Saturday night dances held in the <insert men's club here> Hall. The Grange was especially important, in those agrarian times.

In the summer, a Chautauqua might come to town. You could attend lectures, see clean vaudeville acts, listen to music.

Or, a traveling circus could set up.

Commuting pre-railroad meant walking, or horses, over rough roads. Towns that bordered lakes and rivers would have steam boats. Coastal towns would have sailing ships.

But there were no social spaces as you envision them today in small towns. Men would hang out at the general store, perhaps.

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HerrAdventure t1_j9eshnj wrote

The train aspect, I was going to mention as well. Well put response.

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JimBones31 t1_j9cwqdy wrote

People didn't really commute a whole lot back then. You lived right next to or at where you work. Farmers lived in farms and grocers lived next to the grocery store.

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Technical-Role-4346 t1_j9cy3wo wrote

Correct many towns had several villages each with various businesses and often a post office. Today most of those businesses are gone but the place names have endured. A few still have a variety stores and sometimes a post office.

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JimBones31 t1_j9cyjgs wrote

>Today most of those businesses are gone but the place names have endured.

Can you provide some examples of where the names of have endured? I'm trying to think of places like "millersville" or something.

>A few still have a variety stores and sometimes a post office.

Don't nearly all towns have a variety store or convenience store and a post office?

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Technical-Role-4346 t1_j9defgo wrote

For Example: Blue Hill has villages of Blue Hill Falls, North Blue Hill, South Blue Hill, and Long Island at one time most or all of these villages had stores etc.
Mount Desert has villages of Beech Hill , Hall Quarry, Northeast Harbor, Otter Creek, Somesville - today nearly all the businesses are in Northeast Harbor.

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ecco-domenica t1_j9jkr95 wrote

Kennebunkport: the Port, Goose Rocks (Beechwood), Cape Porpoise

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HIncand3nza t1_j9enbb6 wrote

People didn’t commute. That’s why most Maine towns have a densely populated village area with old houses and then 1970s-1990s builds outside of the town on big lots.

You also didn’t need a car to get around. Aside from the lack of running water combined with poorly heated homes, it doesn’t sound so bad

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costabius t1_j9dhadm wrote

Lewiston is the town where I've actually examined this question. The first thing to remember is the "town" itself was a lot more compact than it is now.

The "center" of the town in 1840ish was Haymarket square, which is the intersection of Main and Lisbon streets. It was exactly what the name says, a market square where farmers came and sold hay for the horses of people who lived in town. From that spot, the "town" was a mile or less up the roads in either direction, up river along Main or down river along Canal street. That area encompassed the mills, housing for the people working in them, and the services they needed for their lives. Easy walking distance.

If you worked in the mills, you either walked or used the trolley.

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MrEddieKing t1_j9f7eme wrote

Pre-car every town or city of almost any size was basically a dense core surrounded by farmland-not just in Maine but literally everywhere on earth. There are different subtleties and variations depending on the exact place but that's the basic formula humans have used for 10,000 years. The core is where most of the services and social stuff happened and also where most people lived. To get around you either walked or used a horse, so things were built close together and at a scale meant for humans moving at walking speed. After the industrial revolution town centers were connected by rail so all of a sudden you easily go to the next town or even further, but human-sized design was still the standard.

The current way things are built-spread out and designed for cars, rather than people-is very new, historically speaking; we've only been doing it since about 1950. It's hard for any of us to imagine because we've grown up in it (in the US anyway), but the way things are today is a choice, not an inevitability. The US once had the most extensive rail system in the world and it was literally dismantled to reduce people's choices so they'd have to buy cars, and the auto industry has heavily influenced government policy to incentivize building spread out, car-dependent towns and suburbs, and highways to go between them.

Again, this is the whole US, not just Maine. For example I live in Rockland, and 70 years ago I could have walked downtown and hopped on a streetcar to Thomaston, Warren, Camden, Rockport or Belfast. Now that streetcar line is Rt 1. Personally I'd rather have the train and a grocery store I can walk to.

If you're interested in learning more about this stuff I highly recommend this YouTube channel, and this playlist in particular: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa

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mainething t1_j9dqdxs wrote

The first "roads" were the rivers. Find the location of the trading post on the river and you will find those Indian paths radiate out from there toward the coast or a lake/pond where boats could be used. Those paths became our roads as the settlers congregated. A fascinating study made evident with aerial photos.

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prepostornow t1_j9fe2el wrote

There was also an extensive trolly system

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baxterstate t1_j9gi7gv wrote

Many lakes and rivers were used to transport lumber, which they did until the early 1970s. That meant that many lakes that now have million dollar lakefront homes didn't have any because the logging made swimming and boating filthy and dangerous in all but the wide areas.

Many lakes had a dam and a mill at one end to process the lumber. Just imagine all those logs you see on huge trucks being floated down lakes and rivers.

Most roads were gravel or dirt, which is why early cars had such a high clearance so that they good still get through during mud season.

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mmaalex t1_j9rgtap wrote

In addition to what else has been posted:

A lot of townships had smaller built up areas with their own village names. Keep in mind a standard town is 6x6 miles so it could be a significant walk or ride. Most of these historical villages have since been built between causing them to be hard to locate, but on the coast, you still see a few around. The built up groups of houses were largely grouped into the village areas which might include a store, post office, school etc. Areas in between might have been used for agricultural, Woodlots, etc.

In addition to the railroads mentioned, there were extensive steamship routes on the coasts and rivers with daily or weekly service between many small towns and the larger cities including Boston.

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