Hometown, how things are the same but different

[BH]

This is my hometown, where I hang my hat. It is amazing how it looks so much different 150 years ago but yet it still looks the same in many ways. For one thing the railroad line still follows the same path though today there are two more rail lines that run through town.

Off to the middle of the extreme left you see two houses almost next to each other on what was then South Church St. One of those homes belonged to my grandparents, though they did not buy it till the 1950's. The deed said the original house was built in around 1850 or so. It's funny seeing that home and the other one (it is still standing too) out by themselves. South 15th St as Church St. is called now is all grown up with homes, Oil City Iron Works, so forth.

Today Corsicana has almost 30,000 people in it but back then it maybe had 1500? It wasn't even the biggest town in the county back then. Chatfield, Porters Bluff, Dresden, and Spring Hill were bigger or about the same size. Today the next biggest town in the county is Kerens with about 1500 people. Kerens did not exist back then. Chatfield is little with may be 200 people Dresden is almost nothing and Porters Bluff and Spring Hill are ghost towns.

One thing I note is the lack of industry on a large scale.


I believe the picture is in the public domain. The link is:

http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~txnavarr/towns/corsicana/Misc/1873_Birds_Eye_View_Corsicana.jpg

 

[rousseau]

In the 19th century my home-town was a barely occupied plot of land somewhere between Chatham and Sarnia. Once industry converged on Sarnia it largely became a place for those working in chemical valley to live, and that's pretty much all that's there now: housing, with a dash of shops and grocery stores to get the necessities.

Canada's London, on the other hand, has a bit of a richer history although not by much. Mostly, it's just a bigger center, probably due to it's proximity to Toronto, and the presence of a university. These days there's not much of the original town still standing, but the oldest surviving home was built around the 1830s, which was gifted to the city and is now a museum. For most of London's history it was a manufacturing town, which, as in everywhere, is slowing dying off to make way for more white collar, high skilled businesses.

 

[Philos]

Folks,

I don't have a home town.

A.

 

[BH]

Folks,

I don't have a home town.

A.

I know your information online says you are in the U.K. Do you at least have a home county?

 

[couch_sloth]

I've lived pretty much my entire life in the Southern San Joaquin Valley of California.
Since 1950, the population of this area has increased quite a bit...
e.g. Fresno didn't even exist 150 years ago and now it's the 5th largest city in California (by population). Bakersfield is the 9th largest city in CA.
The city of Visalia was founded around 1853, their population has increased over 10X since 1950.

In this area, most of the buildings built prior to 1915 have been torn-down. Other old buildings have been so heavily modified, that you can't tell how they originally looked.

 

[Philos]

Folks,

I don't have a home town.

A.

I know your information online says you are in the U.K. Do you at least have a home county?

BH,

Won't bore you, but I was 'ripped from the womb' at aged two and never saw my mother's family again for more than a few days at a time. All other places after that were vagrant, hence a deep identity with migrant folk.

If pushed, I would say that my hometown is Bellshill in Scotland, but I have never seen it as an adult and have no memories, apart from the homely smell of my grandparent's house and persons. Poignant.

A.

 

[IanSYK]

Where the 45 is roughly the site of the house I was born in



Looking at the same view in 1961 you would have seen the back of the house.



And here is the Street itself



With how it is now

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...52b158d8f!8m2!3d53.49169!4d-1.2563548!6m1!1e1

At the end of the 1960's there was a large scale demolition that took place. Clearing out houses and streets. With new houses emerging on new street patterns.

After 6 months we moved less than a mile to the neighbouring village where we had indoor toilet, bathroom and garden