See what life was like in America's small towns a century ago

Rural small towns today might be shaped by Dollar General stores and rusty industrial plants, but many across the US were once lively brick-paved main streets where domestic manufacturing and tight-knit communities flourished.

Some of America’s small towns have grown in recent years, with young people moving in, while others that prospered a century ago now lie abandoned.

By the mid-century, declining industries began shaping what is now known as the Rust Belt, where once-booming iron, steel, and automobile plants were abandoned as manufacturing industries moved overseas.

But before the economic turmoil, small towns across the US were home to close communities, quaint main streets, and the first automobiles.

In some villages and small towns, like Normal, Nebraska, the bank was a building smaller than a house.

In Hugo, Oregon, the high school was the size of a midsize church.

Take a look at what small towns looked like 100 years ago.