In 1828, the County Court ordered the construction of Alfred Street to pass through the center of valuable mill sites and connect directly to Main Street in Saco, but protests and petitions in Biddeford and Saco led to the street being terminated at Liberty Street, now called Main Street. A photograph from 1870 shows Alfred Street with the steeple of the Methodist Church built in 1847 on the left, where St. Joseph's congregation met in 1870, tall striped poles marking a barber shop, and the Odd Fellows Block barely visible. The wooden sheds over the sidewalks were replaced by retractable canvas awnings in the early 1900's and disappeared completely in the 1960's.