2023: Automobiles replace electric railroad
Some photos are worth one-thousand words. This photo (on the right) could rival War and Peace, containing slightly north of one-half million.
We’ll save viewers lots of time by offering highlights.
• Year: 1906
• Event: Bricking Bluffton’s Main Street for the first time
• Location: Looking south on Main
• Specifically: CNB on right side, Edward Jones on left
• Activity: Men bricking the street, posing for the photographer; check out bricks on sidewalks
• Sign of the times: On the far right side a sign reading, “No Spitting On The Sidewalk”
• Translation: Tobacco chewing men, hobbling out of saloons – if they could read, were put on notice
• Biggest surprise: A railroad track on Main Street
• Surprise number 2: A rail siding heading off to the left
(today’s walking alleyway between Shannon Theatre and Ten Thousand Villages)
1906 South Main Street Bluffton.
The scene today - The only building remaining from the 1906 photo is the Edward Jones building.
T'he photo below shows Main Street in Model T days - looking north
The photo below is from 1959 - looking north
Photo below is from 1961 - today's Edward Jones building is on the right
Photo below Main Street looking north in the early 1970s
