This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2016.
MANSFIELD — Go there today — to the corner of Main and Fourth Streets — and you’ll find a very open landscape: the friendly greenspace of Richland Carrousel Park, and the great paved plains of the Municipal Parking lot.
The same place in 1977 presented a very different kind of cityscape, with buildings on the corner creating a regular urban canyon.
The area encompassed today by the Carrousel is wholly transformed. The Main Street side in 1977 had bars and restaurants. The Fourth Street side had bars, lounges, and saloons.
At the corner of Fourth and Walnut was the Greyhound Bus Station.
Anyone who wants to understand the metamorphosis of downtown in the 21st century has only to compare these views of Then & Now: from a place where you really wouldn’t want your kids walking, to a place where families take their kids every day.
