Cities and towns whose original center has been wiped out by freeways

Started by bandit957, July 14, 2017, 07:39:51 PM

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bandit957

Are there any cities and towns that still exist (maybe even growing fast) whose original center has been utterly obliterated by freeway construction? I don't mean drastically altered, I mean gone completely. It's not likely to be a city with an easily identifiable point as its center, but maybe a small municipality built around a set of model homes that were razed.

You can argue that my hometown of Highland Heights KY came kind of close, but it's not really obvious where its center point is. I'd say its center point is most likely at Main & Renshaw, where its first model home was, but I've never seen a map that agrees with this. I-471 and I-275 get uncomfortably close to this point, but the intersection (and maybe even the model home) is still there.

(I wouldn't agree with a map that places the center point of Highland Heights south of the freeway end at US 27, since that spot wasn't even within city limits when the city was formed.)
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The Nature Boy

More than just its center, Lewiston, Vermont was totally wiped out by Interstate 91 and a widening of Vermont 10A.

Rothman

I believe Hunter Branch, KY was wiped out by the "New" 80 in the early 1980s.
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JJBers

I-84/I-91 brutally slices through Hartford, Connecticut.
CT 2 pretty much cuts through the southern part of Noriwchtown, Norwich (A village, but still)
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KEVIN_224

Some will argue New Britain, CT for when CT Route 72 was built in the 1974-75 time frame. Honestly, that, plus WestFarms Mall opening to the north in 1974 (West Hartford/Farmington town line, hence the name) didn't help either.

CtrlAltDel

Just out of idle curiosity, what is a "model home"? None of the definitions I've been able to find seem appropriate.

As far as an example, one of the major agglomerations of houses in Berkeley IL, a village near Chicago, was razed to make the infamous loop ramp from I-294 to I-290. There were other grouping of houses elsewhere, and the village hall was built somewhere else too, but back in the day, that loop ramp was the densest part of town.
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bandit957

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on July 16, 2017, 01:43:02 AM
Just out of idle curiosity, what is a "model home"? None of the definitions I've been able to find seem appropriate.

From what I've been told, the model home in Highland Heights was the prototype for other houses that were being built there and was supposed to sit at the center of town.

It's at the intersection of what appears today to be two very minor streets, but one of these streets used to go across most of the town before the freeways broke it up. The elementary school used to be near this intersection too. The Interstates weren't built right on top of this intersection, but they're only a couple blocks away.
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WillWeaverRVA

Controversially I-95 (well, the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike, prior to the I-95 designation) was routed through Jackson Ward and parts of downtown Richmond that were predominantly African American. The "orphaned" parts of Jackson Ward are some of the poorest areas in the city.
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Beltway

Quote from: WillWeaverRVA on July 30, 2017, 11:30:59 AM
Controversially I-95 (well, the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike, prior to the I-95 designation) was routed through Jackson Ward and parts of downtown Richmond that were predominantly African American. The "orphaned" parts of Jackson Ward are some of the poorest areas in the city.

The VA-195 Downtown Expressway was routed thru an area that had over 700 homes and 150 businesses removed for the right-of-way.  The area including lower income areas has grown and developed well over the years.
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Beltway

Wasn't there a town named Glenfield, PA that was totally removed in order to build I-79 just south of the Ohio River?
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briantroutman

Quote from: Beltway on July 30, 2017, 11:48:07 PM
Wasn't there a town named Glenfield, PA that was totally removed in order to build I-79 just south of the Ohio River?

This piqued my curiosity, so I did a little research. Glenfield, on the north bank of the Ohio River opposite Neville Island, still exists as an incorporated borough today. Although at a current population of 212, it's less than a third of what it was in 1960, before any construction of I-279 (as it was designated then) took place.

Prior to the Interstate, Glenfield's street grid basically consisted of two N-S streets: Killbuck Street (which still exists) and another parallel street one block to the west. That other street ran roughly where the hairpin onramp to I-79 South stands today. There were a couple dozen homes on that street; all were razed–not for the through lanes as much as the interchange's ramps. Glenfield's homes on the north end of Killbuck, as well as those along the Ohio's north bank, still survive.

Beltway

Quote from: briantroutman on July 31, 2017, 01:09:23 AM
Quote from: Beltway on July 30, 2017, 11:48:07 PM
Wasn't there a town named Glenfield, PA that was totally removed in order to build I-79 just south of the Ohio River?
This piqued my curiosity, so I did a little research. Glenfield, on the north bank of the Ohio River opposite Neville Island, still exists as an incorporated borough today. Although at a current population of 212, it's less than a third of what it was in 1960, before any construction of I-279 (as it was designated then) took place.
Prior to the Interstate, Glenfield's street grid basically consisted of two N-S streets: Killbuck Street (which still exists) and another parallel street one block to the west. That other street ran roughly where the hairpin onramp to I-79 South stands today. There were a couple dozen homes on that street; all were razed–not for the through lanes as much as the interchange's ramps. Glenfield's homes on the north end of Killbuck, as well as those along the Ohio's north bank, still survive.

I can see that on Google Maps.  I recalled from an anti-Interstate book that there was a town just south of the river that was totally obliterated to make way for the Interstate.  Maybe the book's author just made it up.
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bzakharin

Clark, NJ, where I used to live, was cut right down the middle by the Garden State Parkway, cutting several neighborhoods (including mine) in two. That said, it's so small that I don't think it ever had a center to begin with, and the current "center" is a set of shopping centers at the Parkway interchange, giving commuters easy access to several major stores, to the extent that "Welcome to Clark" signs are now sponsored by the Shoprite supermarket.

jmd41280

Not a town or city on its own, but the Manchester section of Pittsburgh, PA had a thriving business district along Beaver Avenue until the district was wiped out to build the US 19/PA 65 freeway.  The residential portion of Manchester still remains.

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Mr_Northside

Quote from: briantroutman on July 31, 2017, 01:09:23 AM
Glenfield, on the north bank of the Ohio River opposite Neville Island, still exists as an incorporated borough today. Although at a current population of 212,

And, small as that it is, it's not the smallest municipality (by pop) in Allegheny County (at least, last I read).

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Bickendan

Not a freeway, but the town of North Bonneville, Washington, was physically moved to make way for the Bonneville Dam, so the original location was wiped out.

jmd41280

Quote from: Mr_Northside on August 01, 2017, 05:59:08 PM
Quote from: briantroutman on July 31, 2017, 01:09:23 AM
Glenfield, on the north bank of the Ohio River opposite Neville Island, still exists as an incorporated borough today. Although at a current population of 212,

And, small as that it is, it's not the smallest municipality (by pop) in Allegheny County (at least, last I read).

It's still Haysville (population 70) which borders Glenfield to the west...
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sparker

A significant number of towns along (old) US 99 in the San Joaquin Valley were decimated by freeway development in the '50's and '60's -- particularly those in the southern half (between Bakersfield and Fresno) such as McFarland, Earlimart, and Tipton.  There, the freeway was aligned at maximum a couple of blocks away from the original through-town routing.  Unlike the "M" cities north of Fresno (Madera, Merced, etc.), which had distinct bypasses, the upgraded 99 just plowed through town; most of these have yet to recover.

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Roadgeekteen

Did the people in these centers not try to have these roads not be build.
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sparker

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on August 02, 2017, 03:27:00 PM
Did the people in these centers not try to have these roads not be build.

In the case of the US/CA 99 corridor in the San Joaquin Valley, the towns along the route were largely settlements of farm workers or other personnel associated with the agricultural activity dominating the region.  There was little if any political influence emanating from these communities in the '50's and early '60's -- most of them were literally bulldozed; any affected housing (usually frame-type houses in that region) was relocated to the towns' outskirts.  This "process" wouldn't happen today -- at least not as overtly -- a modicum of safeguards have been built into eminent-domain proceedings in the interim -- and since Cesar Chavez' organizational efforts in the late '60's and '70's, agricultural employees are no longer "pushovers" in that regard.  We'll just have to see just how much things have changed when it comes time to revamp 99 from Delano to Goshen in the next couple of decades. 

bandit957

Pretty sure Glenfield qualifies, or comes close. I'm looking at the maps, and while PA 65 still exists, it seems to have been redone.
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bandit957

Hacienda Village very likely qualifies, assuming it was even incorporated.
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