This month’s exploration of my model railroad layout is our third look at an individual neighborhood of Rose City. Back in the 1940s some developers noticed that there was a lot of still undeveloped property just north of PowerTown. Clearly it was a good spot for a soon-to-be-growing suburb or two. People started buying up property and forming Home Owners Associations — not that there were any homes yet to own, but investors are always optimists. Now in 1969 you can see some buildings from the ’40s and ’50s, as well as plenty of newer ones that had been built in the ’60s. The latter group are all to the east and north of the photos here, so you can’t see them in this post. But you see some of the early development — familiar names like Texaco, KFC (with its original unabbreviated name), W.T. Grant, and Woolworth — and a suburban home or two to suggest the rest.

In 1960 some property owners persuaded the city to name the neighborhood The ’Burbs, even before there was even one suburb to speak of, not to mention the implication of more than one! Optimism combined with marketing always wins.

Categories: Model Railroading