Main Street

Traditional small town values - enterprise, thrift, hard work, respect for property and good neighbourliness – all reside on Main Street. Friendly local traders cater to the material needs of the community – the drugstore, lunch counter and soda fountain provide a social hub. The artist-in-residence is Norman Rockwell who left no corner unrecorded in his sentimental taxonomy of Main Street from bootblack to barber-shop. Rockwell’s Arcadian images became deeply embedded in the American collective consciousness and stood for an unlikely world of universal human fellowship, business acumen and unlimited optimism. Main Street would typically present a variety of building types and styles, a refuge from the monotony of suburbia. These postcards have another thing in common – they each feature a branch of F W Woolworth. Almost 600 Woolworth stores were open for business by 1912 and the process of eliminating independent traders from Main Street was already underway.