Town with small business, no chain stores or malls? (houses, school)
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Is there any town out there that still retains that 50's flavor, with mom'n pop stores, main street, diners, taverns and nice houses (no cookie cutter suburbia)? Preferably in the NE, but I am open to other suggestions.
When you get real small some towns can't maintain a chain store. My town is mostly local businesses, but it only has around 700 people. One of the gas stations might be part of a chain, but I don't think so. Although the houses aren't that varied, but there are a few with unique architecture.
The following lists places that are furthest from a McDonald's. The Oregon/Idaho border and west-central South Dakota seem to be key places. Particularly Meadow, South Dakota or Isabel, SD as that's the closest place I find on city-data. (The demographics make me think this area could be on Indian land, possibly Sioux or Cheyenne)
South Dakota also seems to be low on Wal Marts per-capita. So maybe there's a town in South Dakota between 6,000 and 12,000 that might come close to fitting.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed
If you want the Northeast New York and Pennsylvania look to be low in malls and Wal-Marts per-capita. Maybe there's some micropolis, or smaller, in those two that'd fit.
There are loads of towns like that in PA. New England is practically famous for them. I mean, if you go outside of the towns it's typical suburbia, but a lot of the older towns (colonial era) on the east coast are free of national chains. If you're looking specifically for "50s flavor", a rural town is what you want because a lot of the towns around cities are fairly cosmopolitan.
In PA: West Chester, Media, Bloomsburg, Selinsgrove, Malvern, Kennett Square
The town I grew up in has less than 1500 people in it, currently there's 1 school building which houses kindergarten through 12th grade, a grocery store, a post office, a library, and a diner. There are a bunch of small towns like that in NW Ohio, but I know that's not quite the North East
In Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, these towns are the rule, not the exception. But generally you'll want to avoid areas close to the coast or along highways, as these tend to be more developed.
Here's another interesting site -- shows a map of numerous fast food chains across the country (zoom in for more detail):
Lots of towns in the Northeast that I've been to are like this. New England, Upstate NY, NJ.
I agree...Off the top of my head for Upstate NY towns: Skaneateles, Marcellus, Homer, Dryden, Saranac Lake, Carthage/West Carthage, Lowville, Mexico, Cazenovia, Phoenix, Owego, Norwich, Hamilton, Clinton, Sylvan Beach, Corning, Cooperstown, Clayton, Alexandria Bay, Sackets Harbor........
Wellsboro, PA - Welcome (http://www.wellsborostores.com/Wellsboro_Stores/Welcome.html - broken link)
Other towns with less tourist promotion that struck me like that recently: Avoca, NY; Montrose, PA; Brockway, PA; Warren, PA.
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