Land O’!

Really, it’s named after that. “. . . a place in Egypt given to the Hebrews by the pharaoh of Joseph, and the land from which they later left Egypt at the time of the Exodus. It was located in the eastern Delta of the Nile, lower Egypt."

That’s an impressive piece of civic architecture . . .

. . . and a sign of great prosperity and cultural confidence.

Building on the second from right: “Those other guys on my right are just too loud"

Building on the right “Stop whispering, I can hardly hear you”

A little early, but we’d best get the OUMB out of the way.

Jeez.

Looks like someone went through the window to make a deposit.

People said that the party needed to have a fresh public impression:

It was a newspaper, of course. It was published from 1837 to 1918. Why they put the year 1907 up there makes no sense - makes the paper look dated.

What I love is the tiny model industrial shed perched atop.

Absolutely perfect - undisturbed, well-maintained.

Same as it always was.
After they bricked up the fiends, the townsfolk would gather around the windows to watch them suffer and beg for release

Please, make us a door

Sorry, no

Restored, preserved: revered.

We love the old signs, and the times they suggest.

Yet we never come up with a modern equivalent.
 
Odd place for a bank, being midblock, and odd style, being midblck and rusticated.

The building on the left is rather frightening.
Now that’s a bank.

Rote and uninspired - Ionic column usually look too frugal - but perhaps it reassured people that they didn’t waste money on Corinthian fripperies.
“Hoping to avoid the Democrat’s fate since 1942”

Looks like the brother next door got the same odd framed update.
Faded attempt at modernity, perhaps done on the cheap.

 

The classics abide.


The building was constructed as part of a block of retail stores by Charles A. Harper during 1888. In this particular building he had “a first class boot and shoe establishment” according to newspaper accounts at the time.

 

 

 

The Central Block, 1882.


Evidence of a downtown refresh - the brick crosswalk, the planters. And of course the trees.

 
That stone . . . not wise.

But if it’s any consolation, the facade was never very interesting.
A small miracle, given what usually happens to these venerable citizens. Perhaps it had half a century behind a screen.

As I always say, I'd rather have neon signs than trees.
It’s the three stages of building desecration and rehabilitation.

They could bring it all back, if they wished.
I’m guessing the entrance was in the back.

Can’t explain the rakish angle of that door. Pity they had to paint the left side, but at least we can see what it was when first built.

Proud little thing, and a boon to any town.