If someone who lived in Trumbull in 1883 were to turn up today, some things might look familiar.

For example, Main Street stretches north and south.

Christ Church Tashua still stands at the corner of Madison Avenue and Tashua Road.

And people still congregate at Long Hill Green.

But the Main Street of today is not a muddy thoroughfare; Christ Church has an addition; and Long Hill Green by such businesses as surrounded by cigar factories, a woolen mill and a general store.

Though Trumbull youngsters might still go to one of six public elementary schools, today's structures are not one-room buildings but multimillion dollar edifices that are one of the backbones of local life.

In short, nothing in Trumbull is like it was in 1883.

The resident of 1883 found just about anything near Long Hill Green. There were a smattering of other stores throughout town, such as Trumbull Center.

Back then, between the 1880 and 1890 censuses, it had roughly 1,400 residents, many of them farmers.

At the last Census, in 2000, Trumbull had nearly 35,000 residents, many of whom are commuters.

Some stay locally, where they work in gleaming office buildings. Others head for Bridgeport, Stamford, even New York.

Many of the farmers of 1880s sold dairy products — shipping them via the Housatonic Railroad, which chugged through the Pequonnock River Valley for nearly 100 years.

But the town had visitors, too — sometimes as many as 3,000 a day. They came to an

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amusement park known as Parlor Rock, an attraction built by the railroad to boost business. They could picnic, boat and swim in summer, and skate and toboggan when cold weather set in. Many of today's residents are employed in professions like education, health services and management. "Everything was right here," Arthur Gabler recalled of the 1880s to Dorothy Seeley in "Tales of Trumbull's Past." In those days, a railroad ride to Bridgeport wasn't more than 25 cents. Today, the standard fare on a Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority bus is $1.50. Though today's Trumbull prides itself on parkland and open space — the largest acreage per capita in the state — special facilities like pools and sprinkler parks are intended primarily for town residents.