At one time New Bedford was the richest city in the country per capita. Although the Quaker influence, which was strong, prevented boastful ostentation, the owners of ships and the whale oil industry built mansions on large estates many of them on the top of the hill affording them a clear view of their wharves, ships, warehouses, and counting houses before the trees and the downtown area between them and the harbor began to grow and obscure the view.

Their heirs found the mansions a bit much to maintain, and either sold much of the acreage to offset financial losses as the whaling industry declined, or divided up the estates on which multiple heirs could build more practical yet ornate houses. Eventually one whole section of town was a collection of stately homes of various architectural schools, and most have withstood time.

Many now house law firms, doctors’ offices, and organizations’ head quarters while some, maintaining their outsides, have been divided within to be multi-resident apartment buildings some with furnished single rooms, others with suites for small families.

When the city began to lose its luster and began its downward economic slide, many mansions in the downtown area fell to the wrecking ball and were replaced with a bus terminal, a nondescript brick office building, and a two block long county and federal complex with a district juvenile court, a federal building, and a VA center.

Although the early 20th century, three story apartment building in which I live may have replaced the imposing home of Mr. Alfred DeWolfe, a merchant who owned many stores in the downtown area that thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the building still was designed with character having fine appointments that make it an interesting structure and not a brick box.

When a four lane highway was constructed to allow a speedy ride from an interstate to a traffic light in the congested south end of the city, a distance a little over I mile, necessitating tearing down many historic buildings and stately homes so that the occasional tractor trailer had a convenient route to water front businesses, some people had had enough and began attempts to save what history was still around.

The problem was that, in spite of the ultimate success in getting a huge section of the downtown area with old homes and cobble Stone streets and much of the water front designated an historical district, something that spread to other sections of the city earning for them a similar designation, initially they had a problem getting the residents of the city on board.

And then it happened.

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There, among mansions and other buildings of note, the Golden Arches rose yellowing the night sky. The seeds for honky-tonk were sown.

The people reacted. The horrible idea that other historical homes might be replaced with schlock had woken people up.

And now County Street with its miles of stately homes has only that one blemish and the KFC that appeared at about the same time to mar its beauty.

Rome is the “Eternal City” with its ancient artifacts, buildings going back centuries, and traditional foods that are as much a part of the history of the city as is all that ancient Rome stuff.

But soon among the history, and in the shadow of the Vatican, we may start seeing the Golden Arches in pictures of Rome and Vatican City, especially as the McDonalds will be located just outside the gate to the Vatican where, besides it, you can see the window where the pope speaks.

The complication with any objection from the citizens of Rome and the multi-generational owners and chefs at the local trattorias is that the Vatican owns the building and will receive $31,000 a month in rent from McDonalds.

And to make things worse, in spite of all the little local coffee shops where people speak Italian for real and serve real Italian coffee items, Starbucks is preparing to open its first shop in Italy.

There goes the neighborhood.