Downtown Champaign (West Urbana??)

As the title suggests, the first thing I learned today was that Champaign used to be called "West Urbana." I'm glad they changed the name.
What I did not realize was that Urbana was settled first, and that many of the people who founded it were from Urbana, Ohio. This makes sense. When people wanted to spread out from Urbana, they moved west and of course named the city impulsively "West Urbana." Most of the buildings were built away from the border of Urbana and West Urbana so that the factories and buildings were not upwind of the more residential areas. We talked about this as we crossed Park Street (the most common street name in America) downtown and moving towards Virginia Theater and the Park.
One thing that stuck out to me in the beginning was the idea of axes again. This was sort of a throwback to the first class we ever had. The streets are sort of cockeyed downtown right by the transit station. One street goes to (symbolically) Washington D.C., which sort of creates a pie shape with the other streets it intersects, notably the City Hall.
My favorite part of the tour overall was when we talked about the park and its surroundings. This was West Side park, not too far from downtown and pretty large in my opinion. Professor Hinders said that it was and is the main park in town. Not too far away (just across the street in fact) is one of the local high schools. And, coincidentally enough, there is a Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic Church on any given side of the park. What does this all have to do with anything? Americana was a sort of cultural ideal that was present in a lot of small towns. At one time Champaign may have fit into this category, where people did not separate three aspects of their life (cultivation of the body, mind, and spirit). So, you could get exercise, learn, and save your soul all in the same area. I found this extremely interesting, and even relatable to my life on a smaller scale. My school had a large playground and church all in the same vicinity, as is common in parochial league schools.
The biggest thing I took away from this trip was the overall idea of interpreting why things are the way they are. Often times I walk around places without really thinking about why things are there and not just the fact that they are. After all, I think that is the point of the course.