As settlement matures and as the frontier passes into the domesticated landscape, communities are founded in other kinds of locations than those defined by primal topography of the frontier landscape. A community may arise, for instance, where two paths or roads intersect. Or a community may be intentionally founded simply for the sake of convenience in relation to a surrounding area such as a county. Across Tennessee we see row after row of counties characterized cartographically by a centered county seat from which radiates spokes of roads. Winchester, TN is an excellent example of this kind of planning.
Some communities become centered upon an institutional feature.
Besides courthouses, community center points include schools, churches, stores, industrial sites, or a military base. Midway community near Sewanee centers upon a convenience market. The Centennial community between Cowan and Winchester centers upon a grocery store. Alto community centers upon a tiny store in combination with a grain storage facility. Marble Hill is a cluster of six or eight houses around a country church.