As ordinary as it gets. And that's good! Twenty thousand souls. I've seen small towns this size in towns with a quarter of the popuation.

Someone ruined the ground floor. The decision to install those backlit fabric canopies was not . . . an optimal solution.

Just a little arch to tell you who paid for this pile.

LESLIE.

The ground floor and the windows were abused by time and malice and the desire to improve, but the structure still has its character intact, somehow.

If you concentrate on what’s untouched, it’s better.

Handsome, except for the stylized shingling in the windows.

FRANKENSTEIN WANT SOUP

FRANKENSTEIN KNOW NAME IS ACTUALLY MONSTER BUT TIME AND USAGE HAVE CHANGE THINGS

These always pop like nothing else in a small town. As they were intended to do.

Opened in 1910, “gutted by fire in 1938.” Rebuilt into the gorgeous thing you see before you.

Now a church, one of the last destinations for old theaters.

I hope it works.

OUMB, but from when?

Early 80s vibe, I think.

May look boring to you, but I have a soft spot for the crisp, spare look of 50s institutional buildings.

Big dumb Lenny and his smarter, short pal who’s all the brains in the outfit

Nice expensive work upstairs:

Apparent the short building was the original entrance, updated with no style or class, just a decision to do something “new.”

Ah! As I like the 50s institutional buildings, so do I love the 60s “International Style” knockoffs that rose in medium-sized downtowns. They added a serious, modern look.

This one’s a bit too dark.

The poor Arcade.

The windows took the usual hit. The wood over the second floor stairway landing looks ancient, and they painted instead of replacing.

SMITH

Yet it has a hotel vibe, somehow. Well, you often find “house” applied to hotels; perhaps it was traveling men of business.

It was completely rehabbed after the war - the bottom floor’s new, the screen might obscure an unmolested facade.

The sad and obvious sign of a fire, or something that was knocked down because it couldn’t stand any more.

The classic Merle Norman store, once a mainstay on Main Streets across the land.

I think the same guy owned the building next door; decided to redo the lower floors at the same time.

Hmm: it looks abandoned, but perhaps someone with some scratch could bring it back to life?

Yes . . . and no.

Another big corner block gone.

Takes the heart right out of a town, it does.

Two old friends.

One’s feeling better than the other.

I don’t know why exactly, but there’s something about this . . .

. . . that says the end times have come and gone.