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Traffic Jam......1865

 

This 1865 photo shows Main Street in Janesville, Wisconsin.  The store, Lamont & Fuller, can be seen in the foreground.  Lamont & Fuller dealt in groceries, crockery, flour, feed, butter, cheese and fruits.  Their store was located at 8 North Main Street.  The sidewalks are constructed of wooden planks, and the road is dirt.  There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to the traffic, or to the parking, either.  I wonder how a pedestrian ever crossed the street without bumping into a horse or dragging a long skirt in manure.  Considering that the first white settlers arrived in Janesville in 1835, this photo shows a great deal of development in just 30 years.  

 

The photo is from a stereopticon image available online; (1860 - 1920) Main St. Janesville, Wis. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-bec8-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

 

The information about Lamont & Fuller is from “Holland's Janesville city directory, for 1870-71, containing an historical sketch of the city, and complete list of all the residents. Also a classified business directory, with the name and address of the merchants, manufacturers and professional men &c.”, Chicago, Illinois: Western Publishing Company, [1870]; accessed at

http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.JvilleHolland1870


History of Janesville, accessed at https://www.ci.janesville.wi.us/about-janesville/history-of-janesville#:~:text=The%20first%20settlers%20arrived%20in%20the%20Summer%20of%201835. on 8 AUG 2020.

 

 


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