Part two of our look at this town, which was going about minding its own business until Google showed up to drive around one afternoon and define it for the internet to judge.

Well, not the internet; just me.

Let me guess: senior housing now?

No, as it turns out. From their website:

The Bondi Brother sold their dry good store to Kline’s Department Stores in 1927 and with those proceeds, constructed the Bondi Building in 1928. Then and now, Galesburg history is written  with our tenants having shared in our success and "they represent the finest professions with their own successes...the continuing tradition."

Well, good for them. It's been modernized, obviously - the ground and top floors were once much more interesting.

A sign scar's visible on the right; I'll bet each had a sign once, in the Heyday.

And I'll bet there are brick facades slumbering since 1960 under those panels. Would it be better to strip them off and reveal them - or are these kinds of rehabs valuable in their own right as a testament to the postwar Heyday?

Wikipedia:

The Register-Mail is an American daily newspaper published in Galesburg, Illinois. The paper was owned by the Pritchard family from 1896 to 1989, when it was sold to the Journal Star. In 1996, Copley Press bought both papers for $174.5 million. In 2007, GateHouse Media bought Copley's Illinois and Ohio papers

For a lot less, I'd wager. Circ: 10K.

Not, you suspect, what Mr. Foots had in mind.

I'm assuming it was Mr. Foots.

The all-knowing Google is mute on both men.

Sigh, and yet, yay:

Nice piece of 30s classicism, and it must have looked even better when the windows were, you know, windows.

Closed now, says the newspaper - and it notes that the building was originally a Gamble's Department Store. That would be the wonderfully named Gamble-Skogmo, a Minneapolis concern that ran a variety of businesses - into the ground, eventually.

A touch of Northern Europe:

I'm intrigued by the facade on the left; that's no style I've seen anywhere. Looks like a monster's maw from an 80s video game.

Oddly satisfying accidental composition:

The openings on the ground floor must have been from the child labor days.

It moved to the Mall, of course, and then, of course, it closed. Newspaper article at the time:

“These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail -- at the store, online and in the home,” Reifs wrote.

What better way to serve your customers than shut the doors and sell off all the stock?

Here's a venerable block:

I can't tell what it says. Or . . . can I? I can. Bernstein's Bargain Store. Originally the Chicago Bargain Store, if you're curious; now an Antique Mall.

We end with some regrettable Buckaroo Revival, in a most unusual place:

But there's much more; it's quite a well-preserved Modwestern downtown, and like so many others seems built for a larger population.

Have a look around to see what I missed . . .

. . . and give my regards to Galesburg.