The Fifties. This is the version I recall. Herbst department store has a big sign; the Big Red One towers over downtown. (The neon lines in the line went up or down depending on the direction of the temperature.) The elevated signalman’s hut is still visible on the right side; it’s the shack with the green roof. Lugar Furniture, the Store Eternal, is there still; First Federal has a nice new neon sign and a modern front as well. Fargo’s looking up. 

Woolworth’s has remodeled its store and modernized the façade, stabilizing the corner for the next forty years. This was a grand place for visit – if you were eight. It had an escalator, which was a remarkable thing. Those sharp teeth, waiting at the top to  snickersnack your sneakers! That magic moving handrail, a strange metal spinal cord! It had a lunch counter, and the smell of hamburgers and French fries and coffee suffused the entire store – until you got upstairs. Then it was mothball city.