We've been here before, in the early years of this project. Whatever this project is. Two thousand souls; nickname "Central City." It isn't.

We will begin with an underwhelming, but completely typical, OUMB.

I'd say . . . 1972.

You know what this was, right?

NO not a fire station. No! It was a garage, And the door looks almost original.

A modest State Farm building, with the old sign - it could be 1972.

But the building comes from the stylistic limbo of the 50s and 60s.

Perhaps it’s just my experience, but there was something North Dakotan about these.

Wow, that’s something! Pillars and everything. Do doctors work there?

The will to get up there with a can of white paint and do something about that seems to have been lacking.

Are you getting the feeling that there’s not a lot of interesting visuals in downtown Carrington?

Just wait! I chose this for a reason!

I hope! As usual, I’m going through stuff I snipped a year ago.

PLAZA? Really, Plaza?

You might wonder if they’re really about training lumberjacks.

Nope.

It’s cute the way the awning pops up over those windows.

Obviously an old building with a new skin - but what was there before that could accommodate a bowling alley?

Good old bones, but it has that DIY low-budget look.

Cruel Buckaroo-Mansard oppression of a gas station.

The Roman Embassy is, I think, a Carnegie Library.

There’s no reason for that pattern in the brick on the corner.

But it added something. And that was reason enough. Civic pride!

bit ungainly - looks like someone squished on the subway between two stout people.

But again, the necessary sign of old Roman virtues in the middle of the New World - it’s quite remarkable.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before:

Buckaroo dormers sticking out of a first floor awning. Gah.

Hand-made signage isn’t a sign of a sophisticated downtown, I’m afraid to say.

The stone was so popular, and so quickly undone by changing tastes, more than any other rehab of its kind.

Someone decided to give downtown a boost of glamor and beauty, and his name began with D.

His neighbor took up the challenge:

Off-the-shelf 1920s adornments, with subsequent ground-floor rehabbing.

Long, long gone.

No sign of the signage, unless . . .

It’s that faint line in the middle of the picture.

I’m assuming it was a store of note; no other reason for these post-war jobs.

I AM NOT A ROBOT AT ALL WHO IS FITTING IN SO WELL AND IS NOT AT ALL OBSERVING THE HUMANS

Window arrangement to the contrary, this was a hotel.

Hotels usually have tiny windows to indicate the bathroom; this place may have had central bathrooms shared by many.

Buchanan was an important name in town - it’s one of the names of the local high school - but nothing much comes back. You can probably guess.

1911. Senior Citizens.

Little known fact about North Dakota culture: once they go in this building, they do not come out. Keeps them from being a burden on the community.