Friday, January 9, 2015

What Happened To Dorchester's Missing Streets?


What happened to Dorchester's missing streets? Did they ever really exist? 

Those are the questions we are asking after examining an 1885 plot of Dorchester. 

According to the 130-year-old map, the village had several streets on its south section that do not exist today.


The 1885 map, published by mapmaker Everts and Kirk, showed that Sumner, Stephens, Jefferson, Lincoln and Fulton streets once extended well south beyond the railroad, Depot Street and what is now state Highway 33. 

Today, in 2015, only Washington Avenue extends from the heart of the village into its southern reaches.


The Everts and Kirk map also shows that the town's southern section had a Third Street and Fourth Street, both running east and west. 

Fourth Street would have been located approximately where the Saline County Museum's east entrance is today. Third Street would be present-day Whitmar St.  If there were ever a First Street, it would be today's County Road E.

In Dorchester 2015, the only other street besides Washington in the southern portion of town is Whitmar Street.

We can confirm that Third Street did exist. According to a 1914-1920 map published in the Dorchester centennial history book, Third Street ran east of Washington Avenue, beginning approximately where Whitmar Street begins today and continuing east until it met Depot St. near the railroad tracks. Situated at the eastern end of Third Street was Malek Slaughter Yards. 

According to the 1914-1920 map, it appears that a very small portion of Lincoln Avenue also extended into the south side. 

We welcome any information that our readers can pass along regarding Dorchester's missing streets.

10 comments:

  1. Don't know what happened to the streets but I always thought that area (near Bolton's) would be a great place to build a new baseball/softball diamond with adequate parking.

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  2. Call it the 4th St. Ballpark.

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  3. What happened to Dorchester's existing streets? Lots of potholes.

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  4. 8th street, west of the post office, is perhaps the worst I've ever seen. I am pretty certain that German streets looked better after being carpet bombed by American B-52s in WWII.

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  5. After driving on our "streets" I don't know how anyone could possibly be against paving.

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  6. I hear there are pockets of Al Queda fighters hiding in some of the potholes on Dorchester's streets. Don't tell anyone; CIA information.

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  7. I hate to be picky, but to West Sider, the B-52 did not become operational until after the Korean War. Maybe they meant B-17, 0r B-24's???????

    The B-52 did carpet bomb Vietnam though!

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  8. We are currently looking into the one that was behind our house. SOmehow it was claimed by a land owner with some extra ground that would have been the alley. FInding out this was not done properly to claim the ground and that it was not filed with the village of Dorchester through the Saline COunty. Will keep you posted on out comes of this.

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  9. Here is an idea to fix the streets without paving them......How about using the maintainer and cut out the potholes and washboards, then put gravel down!! Wow, wonder why nobody ever thought about that?

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  10. I moved to Dorchester a long time ago. The reason I remained is because I had family here, loved the town. I didn't matter if it was paved. People live here because they want to. Sure paving would be nice, but I not going to move just because they don't have it, or if they would ever get it. The town, is my home. People can say what they want about Dorchester, but will never change my mind that its a great place to live and raise a family, My family remains here, and wouldn't want to live anywhere else, no matter who says things about the town. Its HOME.

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