Vintage Main Street Postcards

Main street USA is one of the more fascinating ways to look at our past. What stores were prominent at the time, what types of vehicles were driving around. The interesting architecture giving a little bit of personality to each town, but each with a similarity to the next that lets it still feel like it could be home. This is a collection of different main street Postcards for your enjoyment!

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What really stands out for me about this main street Racine Wisconsin Postcard is lack of street lines and streetlights. The road has such an open feel to it. The road being much less regulated and freer for people to explore. I am also quite astonished at the color, it is beautiful. Bright buildings and awnings. Quite nice to look at. I notice the yellow and red as a very distinctive feature.

This postcard is basically a photo snapshot of a moment in time in Vermont. People walking about, a car making a turn onto main street. The beautiful blue sky ahead. A simple traffic light. And a unique profile for Barre Vermont. One thing I noticed is that there are no visible wires anywhere!

A little bit of a further away view of Columbia South Carolina main street. You can tell that this city, being the state capital, definitely has a larger stature, it has many more buildings, taller buildings, a different vibe than the other two postcards. The first thing I notice are the two towering buildings that keep guard over the entrance of the street.

Now this is a completely different feel than the first three postcards. Salt Lake City main street but at night. The striking neon signs, the old-fashioned lighting, there is no need to try and lighten up this picture, the theme is supposed to be dark and alluring. It succeeds. The first thing I do notice is obviously the neon, the incredible neon signs, bringing the street to life... but with an old statue right in the middle, dark, a silhouette against the sky. Nice picture.

This is incredible. What a beautiful main street scene from Kansas City Missouri. This is old. Look at the dress of the people, no cars on the streets. The sky is stunning with the moon peeking through the dark clouds. This might be my favorite so far. What stands out for me is that it seems the entire city is out on the town at night!

This is a little change of pace: a more modern colorful scene from Mackinac Island main street. Light colors, no normal cars, just the special street cars allowed on the island. A beautiful scene during the day with people out and about. My first impression are all the multi-level porches of the buildings on the left. Very interesting architecture.

US Virgin Islands, Charlotte Amalie main street postcard provides a more Caribbean feel to this collection. This gives us a little different flavor of main street. With the main thing sticking out for me is how narrow the street is. Not really built for cars. The buildings are almost right against the street itself. Slightly more intimate, or some may say claustrophobic. Compare this to the first two main street postcards above.

Fun Color. Illustrated. A nice simple postcard of Loudon Street, the main street of Winchester Virginia. What really stands out are the number of cars parked along the street. I would almost imagine there aren't enough people for how many cars are there!

1970s Pennsylvania. The main street of Bradford PA in nice color. This seems more natural and busy than the other postcards. There is little artistic liberties taken, this feels more like a documentary than an art piece. I love it. The awesome red truck in the middle of the street really stands out for me and the street signs to the right. Make this feel more like something I drive through today than a nostalgic snapshot of the past.

Clovis New Mexico main street postcard from the 1960s. First off, the cars. What fun cars from that era, just interesting looking and unique. The other thing to draw your eye is the fact that there are 6 lanes of traffic (including parking) on this main street! This is larger and more aggressive than any other of the postcards. The signs sticking out from the sides of buildings is such a wonderful staple of main street pictures.

That's our collection of some Main Street Postcards. This style and subject matter are incredibly common in our collection but let's us see so much of city and town life and how similar it across the US and world really. But that every city and town has its unique personality and that sticks out when viewing the most important thoroughfare of that city. I hope you enjoyed this collection. Please check out more!!