Our own vintage town

[Mr Vim]

I forgot to post these photos as well, here we go

The street corner outside of the Town Hall:

The Church in the township next to home:

Another product... bean fields:

and the German cemetary, where much of my family is buried:

 

[dhermann1]

How about only allowing cars that'll start if you roll them down a hill and pop the clutch?

Yes.

 

[Steveb1]

Ok. So this thread looks like it has been resting for two months or so. It is time to resurrect it again!

I have read most of the thread and there a lot of great ideas and concepts that everyone has. So now, how do we get there from here?
First size. I've heard state, county, city, town. Realistically, I think that Lizzie has the right idea of ultimately 8000 to 10000 population. But we're not going to have that many folks show up at our doorstep on day one, so we'll have to start smaller.

Next, we need to form a corporation with say 100 initial investors and purchase a parcel of land that will accomodate the ultimate size of the town (8000 to 10000) an build out some basic infrastructure.

Let's say that will cost $10 Million. That's $100,000 per investor.

Then you lay out a small town in the center of this parcel (the concept being that we build out from the middle over time). Start selling lots ( or maybe even better renting lots and only once someone is truely committed to the concept over time they may purchase, something to be discussed).

So the initial 100 investors are sort of the Founding Fathers (or Mothers) who would write our town specific Constitution. Each of these investors need to commit to be business owners and start to establish business to provide basic needs (such as butcher, grocer, baker, clothier, fuel, utilities, etc) and products for the outside world to start bringing income into the town. Each investor, as part of their investment, will receive a lot down town to establish their business. One needs to be a lawyer to help us with the corporation and to help with legal issues and laws as they apply to what we're trying to accomplish.

 

[Steveb1]

Once the initial town has been established and we have residents start to come in, then we can elect officials to govern the town (based on our constitution). I don't know all the in's and out's of towns and laws, but I think one of the key's to controlling and maintaining the town is that it needs to be private property to protect our rights.

As the the town grows over time, additional businesses will be established and additional infrastructure can be built (we can finally put that trolley in).
Clearly, there is a lot more detail yet to be defined but that would be the job of the initial investors and evolved over time.

So now all we need is 100 people, a parcel of land and someone (not me) who knows what the heck their doing.

Oh, and we'll need people who can do construction initially (keep the jobs in town).

 

[Shangas]

Does the town have a barbershop? Ever since I took up an interest in wetshaving, a barbershop is a must. It must also have its own quartet, complete with boater hats, waistcoats, bowties and sleeve-garters.

 

[Steveb1]

Absolutely, there needs to be a Barber Shop as well as many of the other businesses that are discussed in this thread. If this is going to work, this would need to be a self sustaining town that would provide all services (in Golden Era fashion) and a committment from residents to use those services.

 

[Steveb1]

Also, I was thinking about this on my way to work this morning, it would be a good idea for the Corporation to establish Web Hosting so that the local small businesses can engage in eCommerce. Remember we need to bring money in from the outside. This may not help the Butcher but the Barber or Beauty Salon can sell hair products, clothier can sell clothes, so on and so forth.

I'm laughing at myself as I'm writing this, because clearly I either need Therapy or I think this is a really great idea.

 

[Yeps]

I will not be able to live in your vintage town, but I definitely will stop by for a couple nights of performing: first night, classical concert, second night, over at your lounge crooning.

 

[Michael Carter]

I'm in for 100K. I'll be building the local Western Auto store. I'll also be the local gunsmith.

 

[Steveb1]

Alright! That's one. Only 99 more to go. We will need 4000 plus acres. There is a nice 4500 acre piece of land for sale in Kentucky. Not too far North and Not too far South.

 

[jamespowers]

Does the town have a barbershop? Ever since I took up an interest in wetshaving, a barbershop is a must. It must also have its own quartet, complete with boater hats, waistcoats, bowties and sleeve-garters.

I don't remember if we have a barber shop yet. However, being mayor for life, you can have one if you want.
The barber shop quartet preforms every weekend in the bandstand on the town square. I nominate you to get them all together. I hope you can carry a tune.

 

[Diamondback]

I'm in for 100K. I'll be building the local Western Auto store. I'll also be the local gunsmith.

Then we'll probably have more gunsmiths and gunshop owners per capita than any other town in the USA... lol ('Sokay, it just means we'd all have the option of exchanging referrals for requested services outside our own specialties, right?lol)

Oh, for the discussion about having our own airstrip: I don't think y'all really appreciate how big an airfield is--including the overruns at either end, a typical WWII fighter-bomber strip was over a mile long, a medium-bomber field was around 7000' including overruns, and a transport airstrip was longer still. Mind you, these are temporary "forward airstrips" up near the Front Line... permanent installations would probably be much bigger, and for a 4500-acre site would probably require the town to literally be built around and intermingled with the airfield. (Build Main Street big enough to use as a taxiway for B-25s?lol) I'm working on some SketchUp renderings based on old 9th AF Engineer Command site-plans, and I'll see about posting images once done.

 

[Michael Carter]

An armed society is a polite society.

 

[Diamondback]

Amen to that one...

 

[David Conwill]

Alright! That's one. Only 99 more to go. We will need 4000 plus acres. There is a nice 4500 acre piece of land for sale in Kentucky. Not too far North and Not too far South.

Kentucky's perfect. We can have parks at either end of town, one with a memorial to the Union war dead and one to the Confederate.

-Dave

 

[Shangas]

Will this town be representative of an era before the Great War? If not, we should have one for that, too.

And yes, James, I can sing. So keeping the Quartet together should be pretty easy.

In the good old summertime,
In the good old summertime,
Strolling through the shady lanes,
With your baby mine,
She holds your hand,
And you hold hers,
And that's a very good sign,
That she's your tootsie-wootsie
In the good old summertime!

 

[jamespowers]

Will this town be representative of an era before the Great War? If not, we should have one for that, too.

And yes, James, I can sing. So keeping the Quartet together should be pretty easy.

In the good old summertime,
In the good old summertime,
Strolling through the shady lanes,
With your baby mine,
She holds your hand,
And you hold hers,
And that's a very good sign,
That she's your tootsie-wootsie
In the good old summertime!

Good. You are hired to sing in the band on nice summer evenings.
I don't think we decided to cut it off that far back. I think we still want to see some cars with fins---at least I do.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Maybe we need different neighborhoods for different eras. It could make for some entertaining instructions to visitors from the old coots hanging around at the railroad station: YESSAH, YOU TURN LEFT ONTO 1913 AVENUE, GO UP PAST THE BLACKSMITH AND THE CORSET SHOP, TURN RIGHT ONTO 1939 PAST THAT STREAMLINE CLOCK THING ON THE SIDEWALK, AN UP THE ALLEY INTO 1955. IF YOU SEE EDSELS YOU GONE TOO FAR.

 

[Fletch]

An armed society is a polite society.

We should be a polite society on principle, not on threat.

 

[Yeps]

Maybe we need different neighborhoods for different eras. It could make for some entertaining instructions to visitors from the old coots hanging around at the railroad station: YESSAH, YOU TURN LEFT ONTO 1913 AVENUE, GO UP PAST THE BLACKSMITH AND THE CORSET SHOP, TURN RIGHT ONTO 1939 PAST THAT STREAMLINE CLOCK THING ON THE SIDEWALK, AN UP THE ALLEY INTO 1955. IF YOU SEE EDSELS YOU GONE TOO FAR.

That is brilliant. They should radiate out from the center of town, which would be the "old town", getting progressively more modern as you get towards the edge.