Since its founding Public Square has been a primary transportation hub for the
city, serving as a union place for first streetcars and then buses. Yet in the 1800s,
when it was heavily used as a common pasture space, the people had other ideas.
In the 1850s a group of residents erected a fence around the perimeter to prevent
any traffic from passing through. The pedestrian-only square lasted for nearly a
decade before the growing transit demands of the booming city won out.
