the feminist librarian reads

The roads didn’t have to be snow-free. In fact, it was better if they weren’t. Within the city, ground travel was done on foot, on horseback, or in horse-drawn carriages. When it snowed, carriages were either outfitted with wheels better suited for the weather or they were converted into sleighs. If the snowfall was significant, the snow was flattened and packed down rather than cleared. After a two-foot snowfall in the 1830s, the Boston Gazette reported that “several sleds filled with men and boys” were pulled by a team of horses through the streets to level the drifts.