Main St. Bergen, N.Y. 86

Main St. Bergen, N.Y. 86

View across a dirt street of a downtown with19th-century commercial buildings. Early motorcars and a horse and buggy are drawn up to the curb. A new culvert spans the street in the middle ground. This image shows Bergen, NY, around the turn of the 20th century apparently in transition to the modern era: the new culvert and drain at the far right reflect recent street improvements, newly planted shrubs, a fire hydrant and robust utility poles and wires also suggest the modernization of public works in this community located between Buffalo and Rochester. Paving of the streets would probably not happen until the 1930s. This is one of a series of images made in upstate New York state by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to New England or New York state. The glass plates would be sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street.