Is it upstate? It's in Central New York, but given the oversized importance of Manhattan, it's probably considered Upstate. Twenty-seven thousand souls. Let's see how the downtown shapes up.

Fine Court house in the Doric manner. I wonder if the architect was pleased by the row of windows between the capitals and the pediment, or appalled when the client asked for them. That hadn't been done before! For good reason!

One more story, and it would have looked ridiculous.

Well, this is a good sign: sandblasted, tuckpointed, reasonably well-maintained.

You can tell that the building in the middle used to belong to the one on the right. Either the cornice started to drop bricks and they knocked the rest of it off, or - well, I can't come up with another reason, unless the facade spent some time under a metal sheet.

You can understand why some people hate the late 60s and the 70s, can't you?

Could it get worse?

It could always get worse. And did.

Buckaroo Revival on a blank brick wall - it makes you weep.

You might understand my susipcion of tree-planting efforts downtown. Whenever they try to revitalize a downtown, they redo the sidewalks, put in planters, stick in some trees. Then the trees cover the storefronts, or . . .

. . . they die.

The most modern one of these I've seen. The windows could stand some work.

It replaced a nine-story Lodge that burned down in the early 30s, I believe. The restrained facade may have something to do with the fortunes of the era; it was a relief for everyone that the new style just happened to be less expensive.

Next door, this amazing facade:

"Schine" was the chain that ran the theater. Renovation has been proposed, but this story suggests that the problems may be insurmountable.

Take a look at the photo gallery - as the clickbait headlines say, #4 is stunning.

Even the most robust town has a few of these senior citizens on the edge of town.

Wood over bricks. Like a hockey mask over an old face.

If they're lucky, they also have one of these.

Everyone a downtown should have, right there; a facade that breaks the monotony of the usual row of bricks, a whimsical touch added by the current owner or resident, and a nice old piece of neon advertising a nook where you can find refreshements. But buildings like these were looked down upon by the men who wanted to remake downtown.

They prefered a different approach.

It's a place where lots of paper has to be filled out.