The Dalles: the reason for the name will be revealed next week, in part two. There’s a lot for a burg of 13,000 souls.

Context:

That’s nice, isn’t it? Classic small town view. Except the street is a one-way. I’d guess it wasn’t always so.

Another old citizen Buckaruined by the shingles and the bad 70s brick:

A fine piece of pre-war modernism (or maybe a few years after the war), but if you look closely you can see some 60s rock grafted on the ground floor..

The arcade was a nice idea, but the trees seem confused and vaguely hostile.

A. M Williams?

Ah, that helps - turns out it’s an ancient building, remodeled in 1938. Here’s the original.

Frozen in Time: Hotpoint and IOOF.

You know what those are, right? The latter is particularly essential for studying these downtowns. Masons, Elks, Oofers.

This was perfect mid-century renovation: the sign, yes, but the bricks, the planters, the seats - smart shoppers must have loved it.

Before:

Looks the same as the facade above, but it’s one square taller. The sign’s original, although I’m not sure about the store’s name. Likely so, because they mixed-and-matched modern design with old-timey things like lanterns and western fonts. It wasn’t a good idea.

From the era of bars that shut out the world to the maximum extent possible . . .

. . . and the era of boarding houses for very thin people, it seems.

Holy Crow:

Wonder what happened in there, eh? Entertaining diversions, perhaps?

From an earlier view:

It does not seem to be a going concern.

Nice:

Alas:

The news earlier this year that the J.C. Penney store in downtown The Dalles was closing hit employees and customers alike fairly hard, and when the store finally locks its doors at the end of July, it will truly be the end of an era.

The Penney’s store at 212 E. Second St. has been a mainstay of the downtown area since 1914, more than a century ago.

But in February, Penney’s corporate office announced that it was closing 138 stores across the nation in an effort to build the company’s profitability.

Here’s a beaut to end our first visit:

Went up in 1929. More pictures here on Cinema Treasures - the interior looks original, and careworn - but apparently it’s being renovated, and will be filled again some day soon.