But in its architecture and layout, Roaring Spring resembles neither a company town nor a model workers community. Unlike coal company towns, Roaring Spring possesses a relatively wide variety of housing types without a hierarchical town plan, and unlike a model community like Kistler, no master plan appears at work like a template beneath the townscape. Instead, Roaring Spring's street pattern evolved episodically from a combination of natural topography, pre-existing land tracts, and the confluence of old country roads at the Big Spring.