This map is from the Scarborough Audubon Nature Center Collection and shows how much of Scarborough is marshland. It is easy to visualize why small villages developed on the exterior border of the marsh. Together the marsh lands, rivers, streams, and brooks caused a natural separation of the town. Scarborough has never had a main street. The residents of the villages did not start to come together until well into the middle of the 20th Century. At that time, better roads had been built and the school department had started to consolidate.