Fwd: Transition from "In <location name>" from "at <location name>

Tue May 30 19:14:13 EDT 2023

Interesting, Matt  I'm sure someone will tell us the real answer, but here is one possibility. There was no town where depots were built when the railroad first came through. No place to be 'in'. The Depot here in Rural Retreat was built in 1855, in a green field, and named the Mount Airy Depot. Mount Airy was a little settlement about 4 miles away. Just a thought.
Frank Akers

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  On Tue, May 30, 2023 at 6:46 PM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List<nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:   Oops, I sent the below to the wrong mailing list (modeling instead of the main list). 

From: Matt Goodman <mgoodman312 at icloud.com>
Subject: Transition from "In <location name>" from "at <location name>
Date: May 30, 2023 at 2:26:40 PM EDT
To: nw modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>

My father has a fat library of literature and magazines from bygone days. I’ve noticed that older industry writings typically used “at” to reference cities / towns the railroad passed through. Here’s an example from a 1926 employee magazine:

The eastbound crossing frog at Chillicothe with the Chillicothe Street Railway has been taken out and straight rails put in. 
We extend to Floyd Mann, chief clerk, at this station, our sincere sympathy in the loss of his father, who died at Gahanna, O.,

If I wrote that sentence today, I would say “in Chillicothe” and “in Gahanna”. 

When / why did that change? Is that type of structure unique to railroads? Or is this a shift in how the language is used more generally?

Matt Goodman
Columbus, Ohio, US
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