The Automobile and Small Town America: Two Views of Temple Street, Hinton, West Virginia, 1927 and 2007

Hi folks -- well, I'm not an urban or rural sociologist, but I do find the photos particularly interesting. the cars change, but the place remains about the same. True, there is now a stop light, a "no left turn," and street lamps are relocated on the other side of the street in the 2007 photo. there also seems to be no people in the later photo. No surprise, perhaps, since many of the shops are closed. many have noted how the vibrancy of small town America is gone. What does that mean in terms of American character, and American distinctiveness and spirit? What does that tell us about changes in perceptions of community over time?

And as Ed Garten has pointed out in an email to me, gone too are the small town car dealers. He stated about his home town of Hinton, " I posted an inquiry relative to my desire to uncover information about the many car dealerships that used to exist there and already I have had two dozen responses from folks who remembered details about every dealership that used to exist in town. Can you believe that this small (and relatively poor) little town had nine new car franchises by 1954? For a town of 4,500 people tops there were dealerships for: Ford/Mercury, Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, Nash (and later AMC), Hudson, Willys/Jeep, Chrysler/Plymouth, Dodge, and Studebaker."