Considered in light of the town-planning vocabulary developed by historian John C. Hudson in Plains Country Towns, Brainerd's original 1885 plat was an example of an orthogonal rail town (as opposed to a symmetric or T-town).

"The orthogonal plat, placing businesses on both sides of the same street, was favored by many western railroads," wrote Hudson. "The depot generally was located near the Main Street crossign, in the middle of the townsite. It was such a commonplace of town morphology that incoming merchants were confused by deviations."