 Last week I finished the Main Streets entry with this line:
There's really quite a lot more - I could have done another episode. As it turns out, I did. There was another folder of Watertown Grabs, so let's get to it.
God, don't you hate it when you have the middle seat on a plane and two people of generous proportions are on either side?
Don't worry, you'l see it eventually.
The middle building is quite a piece of work for small Midwestern town. From the Watertown Chamber of Commerce:
This building was erected by Theodore Racek in about 1867 and redecorated in the 1890s with a lovely art nouveau sea motif around the top of the building’s facade. It was for many years the site of the W.D. Sproesser Company, dealers in jewelry and musical instruments.
As of the Google's last pas through town, the store has closed.
You know, I think it might be one building. Just a suspicion.
The renovation of Sandra D's is nicer than it looks. The bottom floor was covered with tiles of varying hues. Can't say the paint and the sign improve things, though. But that bay window next door forgives anything the Sandra portion did.
This is interesting. No really, it is:
If I had to bet money, I'd go for a late 30s / early 40s job that punched in that oculus, and added the overhang you see by the utility pole. It's rounded in a way that suggests pre-war style. The little brick accents would work for that period, too. What was it? A hot new cafe downtown? Places like that often went in on the side streets.
"Why does everyone keep calling us up and asking if we sell suppositories?
It almost looks as if the turret just appeared one day, hanging in the air, and they built something around it to make it look normal.
Not the most overwhelming, town-proud marquee.
Much more impressive when it was the Classic. But it's still open, and the locals kicked in to convert the projection room to digital. Long may it entertain the fine folk of Watertown.
By the time you got to the door you'd be out the back:
Take a look at the first story, which protrudes, adn the second, which proves that it doesn't. It's as if space is being distorted in ways you can't quite grasp.
Next door, a civilized way to illuminate the stairway upstairs:
Throws off the proportions, but at least it was something different.
A tiny embassy from the Rational Gleaming Future the Thirties foretold:
Inside, a message for the people of the past:
Beats the old tired Anarchy logo, doesn't it.
Because no one was so good that they didn't deserve some Brutalism:
Ugly heavy concrete overhang: all the vogue for a while. Well, cleanse your palate . . .
. . . with this.
Says the townwebsite:
317 EAST MAIN STREET
Built in the late 1800’s, this building is one of the few in downtown Watertown to have had little or no changes to its facade. It housed at one time the printing offices of the Watertown Weltburger, the city’s German-language newspaper, and the Watertown Grain Co., where farmers would come and bring their famous “stuffed geese” to market.
Does any of that seem right?
There's really quite a lot here. Have a look around - here's your brochure.
Give Watertown my regards.
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