It was a series of several drawings showing a downtown of a small town over several decades… One for each decade, I believe… And you could pick out the small details that changed from picture to picture…
That’s all I remember of it.
I remember it was quite detailed, though.
Not a Richard Scarry book was it?
He specialised in cityscapes with anthropomorphic animals in various roles.
No… I don’t think so… it was completely realistic… not at all cartoonish or childish (no bears delivering the mail or somesuch).
Would it be either The Story of a High Street or The Story of a Main Street?
Or possibly New Providence: A Changing Cityscape? It’s about halfway down the page with a cover illustration.
I’m not 100% sure that new prov. is the one… though the image to the left on the cover looks familiar… I’m pretty sure it was just the one single (double page, IIRC) image that had several redraws, one for each decade. I think the one from the 70s was mostly boarded up and deserted with a revival in the 80s… That’s all I can remember.
Maybe if there are a few scenes with several images for each one that might be the one.
Since this is about a book, I’m going to move it to CS.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
When was your childhood? Establishing the decade will help us focus.
Several Years ago some friends got a Street Through Time for MilliCal. It’
s fun, but definitely very British.:
The same publishers (DK) have come out with a lot of other books on the same theme:
If you don’t have any luck here, you might want to try a group called ‘What’s the name of that book???’ over on goodreads.com.
Not a book (although I suppose somebody might have made it into one), but the description sounds a lot like Robert Crumb’s A Short History of America, a copy of which hangs in my front hallway.
There was also a series of books that showed various stereotypical cities from the same viewpoint over a period of centuries.
Barmi: A Mediterranean City Through the Ages
Lebek: A City of Northern Europe Through the Ages
San Rafael: A Central American City Through the Ages
I think there was also one with an Egyptian city and a Chinese city.
Ooo, those look like a good books! I’d think anyone with a passing interest in archaeology would like them. saves them to my wishlist Thanks! 
Er, the books would interest those with interests in archaeology or anthropology. Anyway, I find them interesting. I love to look at an area and think about how people used to live there.