# Urban American life before the car

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2018-06-01

american-life, boston, cities, detroit, new-york-city, philadelphia, photography, rebel-metropolis, shorpy, street-photography, street-photos, uncategorized, urban-america, urbanism

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1a8daa22762beeb08aa5e285ba259c91.jpg)

This morning I stumbled upon an old (2013) post from Rebel Metropolis that [documents urban American life](http://rebelmetropolis.org/exploring-street-life-before-the-automobile/) through street photos taken _before_ the automobile. 

Above is Little Italy, New York City, 1900. All of the photos in the post are from [Shorpy](http://www.shorpy.com/). 

The photos are beautiful architecturally and from a photography standpoint. But as is pointed out in the post, they also speak to a different kind of street:

> _What’s more, the street here is not purely the thoroughfare – it is the essential common gathering place for demonstrations, for buying and selling food, for children to play in, for celebration, for_ [_lingering and people watching_](http://rebelmetropolis.org/revisiting-the-social-life-of-small-urban-spaces/)_._  

That sounds like a great street. And now I am off to start my day. Because I have meetings all around the city today, I’ll be driving to the office.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/urban-american-life-before-the-car)*