The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1876-02-25

as soon as the grade OF the streets IS taken,
inaugurate, with the paving, a system of
drainage which Shall secure beyond porad-
venture the health, comfort and cleanliness
of the place. Water is plentiful, and is ac-
cessible at from twenty feet to one hun
dred.
Although vast improvements have been
made within twenty years, the next twenty
will astonish those who have looked calmly
on the rast. In 1850 the bridge over the
brook below the Forks Hotel on Main street
was less than 20 feet wide, and there were
no sidewalks at all at the point of crossing
whora Marrs store now s,it required flight
of steps about four feet high to enter the
door, now level with the pavement-Mar-
shall Silverthorn had blacksmith shop
where the Misses Harman now have their
brick millinery store-where DR.. McKelvy's
residence is, Koon the tailor had a small,
low, red, frame house-where Brower's
building stands, on Main street, there were
a couple of old frame buildings, one occu-
pied as a millinery store by Miss Robson,
and the other by sundry persons for tin shop,
&c.-and Browers residence is upon the site
of an old tumbe-down red house on Mar
ket street. Thus we might go on through
the town, pointing out changes which few
years have wrought.
But the most important movement in the
way of improvement was undoubtedly the
purchase, by Rev. Mr.. Waller. of the farm
of Major William Sloan, adjoining the town,
and lying between it and the North Branch
Canal, in the direction of the river, The ex-
pansion was immediate, and streets are now
obened to the Lackawanna Railroad and the
finest residences are going up on Fourth,
Fifth and Sixth streets Lately Mr.. Waller
has purchased the farm of John S. Sterner,
reaching from the canal to the river, and
opening Market street through from First
street to the river, over mile in length and
one hundred feet wide, will make such an
avenue as has no equal in the interior of the
State.
One or two things are yet to be done. A
newand splendid building to be puHup in the
room of the Exchange Hotel, which burned
down on the 24th of February, 1S70-Sharp-
less's foundry is being moved off Centre
street and that widened and opened out
and now "The Forks Hotel" must come
away from the head Of Second street, giving
to the State Normal School buildings the
magnificent appearance their structure and
location insure them-NIiss Wells in Mar
ket street, and shortly that unsightly OBJ
structon must yield to the advancing tide of
beauty, symmetry and improvement, and that
splendid street opened up.from the Fishing
creek to the Susquehanna.
With Il proper grade to the street, standing
in the front door of Mr.. Matthias S. Apple
man on the bank of Fishing creek and look
ing south, your eye will take in a street over
a mile long, and ending at the river will be
relieved by the opposite mountain and with
in very few5years 4 bridge for public travel
and for the trains of the North & West
Branch Railroad will, from the foot of Mar
ket street, give Bloomsburg a direct and easy
access to the east side of the river. So, too,
with the Forks Hotel out of the mid
die of Main or Second street the view
from the Normal School grounds, looking
west, will present street mile and half
long and ninety feet wide to the Fishing
creek; and parallel to it from Berwick Ave-
nue. on the east to the west series of wide
and beautiful streets will be opened, extend
ing from the Fishing creek on the north to
the Susquehanna on the south.
| Between the Lackawanna & Bloomsbury
Railroad lies the North Branch Canal, so
that with al parts Of the country, there can
in one way or another be constant and cheap
communication for freight and travel. This
is no fancy sketch. 1t is plain statement
of what is certain within ten years, and per-
haps within five.
Without doubt, the projected North &
West Branch Railroad, which is intended to
open the Wyoming coal fields to the markets
of the great west, and which was on its
course from Wilkes-Barre to Williamsport,
makes Bloomsburg its central point, lying as
we do forty miles from each place will in
very few years give US control of an
amount Of trade and population which more
than doubles the value of our property, and
the population of our town. Competition
is not only the life of business, but the be-
getter of business. OF that business and
competition the whole community has the
benefit Every facility for ingress to all
other business points and places gives to
your base of Operations an advantage, There
fore, capital and capitalists, men of leisure
and fortune, persons who desire full educa-
tional advantages for their children, and the
summer tourist and casual visitor, come
where it is pleasant and agreeable and ac-
cessible, and we have the advantage Of their
society, their acquaintance and the money
they leave among us for which we give them
an equivalent.
Under the chapter on education, some
thing has been said of the schools and the
buildings and their cost In that on Iron,
Coal and Limestone, our manufactures have
been spoken OF; and in the one on Roads
Railroads and Canals, the connection of
Bloomsbury with the surrounding counties
has been discussed
1t has within its boundaries two pig iron
furnaces, two iron founderies, one tannery,
four large, fine, well kept brick Hotels, there
are forty-two dealers in dry goods, groceries,
hardware, drugs, fancy goods, &c, there are
three newspapers "The Columbian" demo-
cratic, "The Republican," republican, the
"Church Kalendar," episcopal, monthly, in
religious interest of st. Paul's Parish: The
places of public worship are are numerous
the best and newest, at the corner of Iron
and Second Street, st. Paul's Episcopal, a
splendid stone structure Presbyterian on
Market street, below Second, brick Lutheran
Market street above Second brick; Reformed
Third and Iron streets, brick Baptist Third