1923 Planning Board Report-Existing North-South Through Streets

The existing through streets of Norwood, as shown above, were laid out in times before the construction of the steam railroads, before the large industries were established, and, of course, long before the development of modern housing and the beginnings of motor vehicle transportation. These through streets belong to the epoch of the chaise, the stage coach and the activities of the farmer and the village tradesman. Public ways were built primarily for convenient access to wood lots, hay fields and farms, and secondarily to connect scattered houses and villages with one another and with Boston. No plan was prepared which attempted to place these main ways in the most favorable position for the best future development of the Town. In fact the only consideration given to the location of streets was to find sites which were near at hand, and sufficiently cheap for development by hand labor.

For the accommodation of foot-passers, pack horses, and light horse drawn vehicles, streets which were narrow, steep and sharp in curvature were not considered objectionable.

If no plan is prepared for the development of Norwood, the construction of streets will not cease. Streets in great number will be built, in any case, and much money will be spent for construction and for improvement by individuals and by the Town, but this work will result inevitably in confusion. Without a plan, streets will continue to be built, until this confusion and its consequent cost becomes intolerable. This has been the experience of all cities and towns whose street plans have grown piecemeal without adherence to a general predetermined scheme. Experience has shown that opportunity can be seized and money saved in such matters only by laying out the street .structure in advance of actual work to meet all exigencies that can be foreseen. Adherence to such a plan does not force a community to build streets sooner than required or in greater number than necessary. Such a plan guides in a rational course street building activities which are inevitable to a growing community.

A glance at the accompanying map of Norwood is sufficient to show that the main north-south thoroughfares which have come to the community as a legacy of the past are confined to the site if the ancient village. These thoroughfares do not cross the upper or lower portions of the Town where active housing developments are occupying grounds which were formerly regarded as “back pastures” or wastelands, but which are now held to be residential districts of an exceedingly desirable kind. Road building in these tracts has become a matter of necessity, and the time is now ri|»o to guide these isolated and haphazard building operations in a manner to create new main lines of through streets for convenient communication.