An Archaeological Study of a Streetcar Suburb: The East Main Streetcar Barns and Hayward-Hobbie Subdivisions, City of Rochester, New York. (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Somerville, Kyle
• Is Part Of: Industrial archaeology review. Volume 40:Number 2(2018)
• Page Start: 127
• Page End: 136
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: inter-urban rail -- intra-urban rail -- 20th-century United States -- industrial spaces -- streetcar suburbs -- social archaeology -- urban archaeology -- transportation history -- New York State; Industrial archaeology -- Periodicals; 609.41
• DOI: 10.1080/03090728.2017.1406215
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-0728

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In order to appreciate the social dimensions of the industrial past, any research examining how working people both laboured and lived must recognise that sites of production and distribution may share a close relationship with the household, a relationship that will influence consumption and settlement patterns. Using artefactual and documentary evidence, this paper examines the initiation and growth of the Beechwood neighbourhood, a former streetcar suburb, located in the eastern section of the City of Rochester in western New York State. Streetcar suburbs in cities throughout the United States have received attention from geographers and urban historians for some time. This paper builds on previous studies by considering how transportation infrastructure — here, a maintenance facility and railyard for repairing inter-urban and intra-urban trolley cars — influenced the demographic and material patterns in one section of the neighbourhood in the first decades of the 20th century.