Again, a town that seems too big for its population. Only 4,500 souls - and that's the most it's ever had. The Birthplace of Truman, as you might have surmised. And Ray Kroc! No. The McDonald's brothers! No. The guy who commissioned the mural owned the local McD. And that's his father's old gas station.

Hey, kids! How many triangles can you find in the picture?

That’s stately, but the more you look at it, it’s like two guards protecting a smaller, but still potent, king.

What a mess

But interesting. The brick on the top of the building on the left is different than the GO AWAY bunker-brick on the bottom; the 19th century building on the right has its cornice info removed, and a 1950s thin sandstone modernization.

Interesting! Still a mess

You like a building that comes in both strawberry and licorice flavors:

They shaved the crennelations off the top on the right, and the Buckaroo Revival awning takes away half the building like a croupier’s wand.

HENCE THE NAME

I wonder if Dot's still around.

It’s as if the DRUGS building lost a third to some interdimensional portal.

“Ol’ man Maberry never did let on what h e did upstairs, but some say he built machines that talked to outerspace, and the whole buildin’ was like a receiver-transmitter thing."

The bank’s upper floors seems to suggest the heavy-lidded eyes of doubtful bankers:

Ahhh, who needs all that rentable space anyhow

		"Block" is usually a word used to describe the building; I wonder if Ida M. Block put up the Ida M. Block.

They really weren’t sticklers for balance, were they

“Just put a consistent cornice up and mark it in three eq url sections, and that’ll fix everything.”

Almost worked.

Some hard lives going on up there.

“It’s based on a drawing we found in Mabarry’s place, after he disappeared. The writin’ called it the Visitor.”

This is the most hungover building I’ve ever seen. This is like the Harry Dean Stanton as an old man of buildings.

Sometimes a sign just calmly, sedately, marks the passage of time with studied indifference.

OUMB

O Slightly less UMB

“I’m thinking people are more interested in the name of the theater than what’s playing.”

A 1934 structure. Cinematreasures:

Closed in 1986 when a fire at a clothing store next door forced the theatre to shut down. With no funds available and condemation inevitable, a group of local citizens and business owners stepped forward to head a committee to save this historic theatre. After 10 years+ of negotiating and fund raising, the Plaza Theatre reopened on November 5, 1998. Still a single screen, with original hand painted murals on canvas tapestries hanging on side walls.

The aerial view shows a merry time:

Why are we here? You may recall the Clippings note about the Mayor Ted Cook went to see? Arthur Aull.

That'll do, I hope; see you around.