The second installment of Ft. Smith. Last week we saw a smallish town with few buildings of distinction. Had you heard about it before? Perhaps as a reference in a Lum & Abner - the big town you went to maybe once a year, if that.

Well, I saved the other stuff for the second installment. Tiny and sad it isn’t.

I wonder who made this:

Actually, I am confused. A building discussed last week was the Friedman-Mincer building. Friedman-Wegman or Wecman brings up . . . nothing.

It’s an interesting building - note the way the visual elements get thinner and more numerous as it rises, but the building still seems utterly solid on top.

The College / Government style of architecture left these cubic turds all over the country.

Next door, a Moderne / Deco "jewelbox," as they always say:

A bit too crammed for the width, but who cares?

Now THIS is a city intersection:

I’m a fan of both styles. The building on the left has all the gravitas a good-sized downtown bank can muster; the building on the right has modernist flair with period colors and some interesting details on the roof that pitch it post-1965, and before the meretricious elements of 70s design set in.

It’s just a beaut.

A rather bleak and blunt example of 20s Hotel design. It was the Ward Hotel.

Tempting to say the top portion was added on later, but that would presume the architects built the original three story base with sufficient foundation to accommodate the addition. Perhaps they did.

The corner from above. Every city over 20,000 needs an intersection like this, preferably with all four corners occupied.

Sorry I’m late - what did I miss?

A good sign of a burgeoning downtown:

According to a brief, incomplete study of some local newspapers, residential demand is up downtown. It’s having a minor renaissance.

This includes stripping the old facades, perhaps:

What it was.

Too bad the original sign's gone.

I never lived there, or saw what it was, but you know it had a big script sign.

In a few years they may regret this, since people will want offices here and coffee shops and small stores that sell soy wax candles:

Old buildings downtown have three phases: glass, brick, glass. If they're lucky.

Finally: the Government, here to Impress You and help you. But mostly Impress You.

Oh, one more thing: In memorium.

Nice little burg.