Center for commercial, communal, civic and ceremonial space in nineteenth and early twentieth-century small-town America. Although Sinclair Lewis’ unflattering depiction of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota in his 1930 novel Main Street exposed negativity and restlessness there, Main Street’s decline resulted from the popularity of the automobile and suburban expansion. Disney none theless championed it in the 1950s. Recent movements to re-establish Main Street as a commercial and communal center include New Urbanism and historic preservation. New Urbanist projects focus on the pedestrian in designing new Main Streets, while historically preserved Main Streets attempt to restructure the economy along shuttered, dilapidated corridors.