"What kinds of buildings should go in a Wild West town?" Topic

So, I'm planning to add some new buildings to my growing town and I'm looking for ideas to add some character. We know western towns had things like banks, saloons, general stores and sheriff's offices.. what are some other lesser known buildings or businesses that no wild west town should be without? The first thing that comes to mind is a Tobacconist which I never heard of till I saw one on TV a little while ago. What else?

A barber? or is that more a 1900's thing?

Fire house? Or is that more a big city thing?

Moustachery? :) Anything else come to mind?

Dry goods store
telegraph office
Post office
houses
Sheriff & jail
saloon
house of ill repute

Billiards
lawyer
Assay Office
carpenter
seamstress\tailor
hotel
boarding house (long term hotel)
restaurant
butcher

The Barber was often the Dentist. Because he already had the chair, all he needed was pliers.

Depends on your town. If you are going for a large town or city, you would have most of those. Most would be built of wood, but some would have brick to about waist height. If you want the movie look put it all in and make it all wood (or adobe).

If you are going for the "real" look, take a look at old photos. There is a lot of bad construction. Most buildings are one-story. All the trees have been cut down for firewood or lumber. There's junk everywhere, and buildings can be laid out randomly. Lots of low fences to keep livestock penned. Many buildings served many purposes: dry goods, post office, and some booze in back. Also, buildings tended to be smaller than you think. A lot of houses were one 10 x 10 room with a stove in one corner. At least in Fort Worth (where I am), prostitution was run out of "cribs." Think a long building partitioned in rooms barely large enough for a bed (like a row of portable toilets, just a bit deeper).

rich rancher's town house
bankers' and merchants' homes
many more than one saloon (our little town had 35)
parsonage (my town's was a former saloon)
bank
meeting hall (especially if it's in Arizona's Mormon country)

I am amazed at how many towns had billiard parlors and bowling alleys long before they had their first attorney.

2nd what F and T said. A minimum of 3 regardless os town size for starters.

no one said jail yet.

Can't build a wooden town without a saw mill, steam or water powered.

Outhouse ie lavatory shack, with 90% chance of Slim Pickens appearing equipped with long johns and a shotgun.

General store.
Bank.

Photography studio. Sounds silly, but it was the new thing back then. Any town that had frequent hangings likely had a photographer who took photos of the condemned man (alive or dead) and then sold copies for a penny. (Penny postcards). Most gangs and outlaws sat for a portrait at one time or another.

Size of the town and age of the town will help determine how far they've gotten away from "just the basics".

Location will help determine construction materials.

If you have a railroad, a water town and windmill to drive the pump should be mandatory.

Stable and corrals

As noted, depends on the size of the town

The usual mandatory things would be a general store, stable and corral, houses and probably a saloon

As you get a bigger town, a church, school and marshal's office – plus a dry goods store and some fancier houses

Cattle Mans association.
Tombstone had a roller skating ring for a bit….

The gunfight at the Disco Dancing Palace would not sound so great…

You say "Big city thing," but a lot of little towns had these things, too, because they were on their way to being a big city. Well, they thought they were, anyway. Firehouse was one of these things. Fire engines were often pulled by hand. Come out to Georgetown, Colorado for July 4th and watch he teams from various nearby towns compete in fire engine races. link
Shipping company "The Wells Fargo wagon is a-coming down the street"
Opera house, if they have pretentions of being great
Courthouse for the county seat
(Back in Kansas, two towns had to have the militia sent in to keep the peace as they squabbled about which would be the county seat)
Glenn is right: you can never have too many saloons, some of which are real hole in the wall places, not the palatial things you often see in the movies.
Laundry (Chinese or otherwise) Real men do not wash their own clothes.
Harvey House (if they are along the AT&SF RR)
General Store
Funeral parlor (maybe a house with the undertaker and his family living upstairs)

Grelber

Thanks for all the info guy

Towns in the old west didn't spring up in a vacuum. Usually there would be a proximate cause that would start the town, then it would spread out into other fields. The buildings associated with the cause would be fairly interesting. Usually there's a railroad and/or local water supply involved as well.
-Farming towns grew up around a grain elevator.
-Cattle towns grew up around stock yards.
-Mining towns around mines, often the mines would be on the hillside and the town in the valley.
-Military posts often had towns grow up around them.

17 brothels.

And from my visit to Bodie, CA, the undertaker should be oversupplied with child size coffins. Sad but true.

And did anyone mention you might want to have a saloon!?

What is the reason for the town?

At what level of development is it?

What is the economic state?

I know the following example is Australian (Yongala, SA) but it may help anyway:
At its height – two large general stores, two hotels ("saloons"), two butchers, two bakers (plus, maybe you could add a candle workshop?), two blacksmiths, two saddlers, a flour mill, a chaff mill, butter factory, jewellers' shop, 3 churches, everyones' houses and you could probably cram a schoolhouse in there somewhere.
Mid 1980's – 1 hotel, a part-time post office, small general store, abattoir, and of the three churches, a resident would say two were out of business and one was on the blink.
Now – one hotel. Even the last church is a private residence.
Oh, and there is a community hall, where decisions were made, dances held, and official functions held.

This is from a Deadlands adventure:
[URL=http://s899.photobucket.com/user/michaeldafoley/media/coffinrock_zpse7e9cc62.jpg.html]

The town was originally there for copper mining, but the mines have played out and the place seems to be in decline.

Please note also that at least one saloon should be near the railroad station, if there is a rail connection.

Maybe you could look at historical maps, or preserved ghost towns?

Try Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for the period for the state/region your town is located in. They were created to estimate fire risks in communities by categorizing the materials, size, # of stories, and style of structures, as well as available on-site firefighting capacity (e.g. factories' on-site water tanks/pumps, fire doors, sprinklers, etc.). All these factors are taken into account for determination of fire insurance rates as provided by the Sanborn Insurance Company.

link

link

loc.gov/rr/geogmap/sanborn

NOTE: some of the abbreviations are a bit cryptic at first (D. or Dwg=dwelling, Vac=vacant; consult the key or master list on the main map for explanations.

link

cowtoen crator not only has a list, it has a history of what each type of building did. Awesome book.

owen

Those looks good…!

Amicalement
Armand