Manchester: City Tree, #2

Manchester, Connecticut

The East side of Main Street is lined with old, maybe turn of 19th/20th century, 2-4 story brick commercial buildings. Most of them are occupied and in quite good condition. The West side of the street has a fairly large park, some more modern (mid/late 20th century) convenience stores and a large library that looks to be of the same vintage, as well as a fairly modern block of commercial buildings that are almost completely vacant. Behind those older buildings that run for a good half mile along Main, there are enormous parking areas. I find back alleys interesting, but they are usually cramped and small. The similar-size city of Newberry, South Carolina, where I did a fairly long photo walkabout on my way through back in 2012, was laid out in a similar way, as were some other Southern towns I saw on that trip. The layout surprised me then, but even more so to see it here in Southern New England, where it strikes me as very unusual.