Nice little tableau, as ordinary and American as they come. Let’s look for signs of life.

An unfortunate plastering of the brick facade, if that’s what it was. It makes the buildings look as if they’re draped in a funeral shroud.

I wonder if that’s a later imposition.

CRAZY DAYS INSIDE

The Z is backwards so you know they’ve really lost their minds, and are sacrificing the economic health of the building by marking down prices with no regard to reason.

Buckaroo bricks to match the shingles.

Get a load of the arial view. Two aisles, but they do go on forever:

Gas, or car lot.

I’m wondering if the town passed an ordinance against automobiles, and that just killed everything gas related.

No, of course not. It's a well-maintained old station, might be used today. Or perhaps the owner simply has a sense of pride.

Sometimes modern churches look as if God Himself sat upon a great soaring structure, and crushed it

“How much cornice did you buy?”

“Enough. I eyeballed it to guess the width. It’ll be fine.”

Nice to know the reporters didn’t have to go far to get a bump.

A proud modern sign . . . once.

Half a castle is better than none, I suppose.

It commanded its site with breadth on the other side.

But it still feels a bit thin.

Someone got a bad makeover.

The building on the left may have been interesting. It isn’t anymore. As for its neighbor:

A Masonic Temple. Its builders would be dismayed to see how time had treated it. Well, no, not time. People.

A handsome courthouse.

Severe. Must have looked clean and rational compared to buildings of the era that were over-ornamented.

Back to the main street: I can’t think of a less compelling illustration of th.0e concept of optimism.

More funereal facade work, with very old - and possibly original - storefronts.

Well, that doesn’t work, but it’s interesting.

The cool old clothing-store sign was older than the window with three panes. So you’re looking at three phases: the original, the modernization that put in two big plate-glass windows and a sign, and the renovation that changed one of the windows.

For the worst.

OUMB, with a face:

’T’was home to gaiety, once:

I wonder if the address really looked like that, to make people think they’d drunk so much they were seeing double.

A gas station subject to some strange uncontrolled growth, as if they’d painted it with radioactive crystals.