Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith P.
It would have been razed by someone else, either en masse or piecemeal. But you cannot seriously believe that this sort of streetscape would remain like that today in the middle of downtown, even in this progress-hating burg?
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"Razed" is something that is not done on a small scale - it requires government intervention to make such major changes as this. You know that. Private property owners could not simply reconfigure entire neighborhoods on a whim, especially back then in this "progress-hating burg".
IMHO, there would be some buildings that would have been knocked down and replaced, and some that would have remained. Perhaps in some places two or three lots would have been bought up and replaced with some 1970s faceless block-building with inadequate ventilation, but the thread of the neighbourhood would have remained.
While I believe what happened at Cogswell was well-intentioned, it didn't come without a cost, and I believe history has shown that it wasn't the right thing for that area.
I have to say that if that little piece of land had been left alone, the downtown area would look quite different today, especially in the areas north of Cogswell. Again, IMHO.