Demopolis: great name for a city. Peopletown!

If the pole isn’t moving, you’re not getting shorn today. Unless everyone knows that ol’ Pete’s pole hasn’t worked since ’83.

I’ve never understood these corners. Did they open it up long after it was built? I’d say yes, since that’s some prime rentable space.

It's a municipal court now, so rentable space isn't an issue.

How the Batman Villain lairs probably looked from the outside:

No one would suspect.

Believe it or not, this was . . . actually cool! Once. Look at the brick, the big window, the metal strips: it was quite au courant.

Uh -

Okay, it’s the town of open corners. This looks as if it was built this way, and you have to wonder what the purpose was. Loading dock? No. Gas pumps? Rare, if so. What?

Three stores, now one? Take the new guy a few weeks before he stopped falling down the slight flight of steps that connected the rooms.

I’m starting to get that early-seasons Walking Dead vibe here. Is anything open?

Even when they were in use, they didn't look too impressive.

Cinema Treasures says the restaurant’s been closed since 2015.

“Well, they sold the church to Satanists, and I guess they’re not big on pryin’ eyes.”

It looks as if it should have some religious purpose, but what?

The upper floor windows are unique. I’ve never seen that before.

“My two daughters like to sit in front of a specific pair of windows, and I’d like to make them special in recognition of that fact."

Can’t make out the ad, alas.

A pair of ghosts. The one we're looking at might have had its cornice cut off, because the building next door . . .

. . . is identical but more ornate.

This is some long-gone stuff. Lonnnng gone.

But greenery! That’ll bring back the shoppers!

We’ve seen this a thousand times. The old building, the mid-century rehab, the 70s Buckaroo awning.

But we’ve rarely seen the hydrant placed where it would bark the most shins.

I’m starting to lose hope.

A great palimpsest, with our friend OWL cigars.

Ruralswalabama.org says:

Julius Rosenbush, a German Jewish immigrant, settled in Demopolis in the late 1800s and established the Rosenbush Furniture Company in 1895. After his death in 1911, his wife Essie ran the business, eventually passing it on to her son Bert Rosenbush Sr.

From 1950 until closing it in 2002, the business was managed by Bert Rosenbush Jr. In 2003, he and his wife Mary Louise donated the building to the city for future use as a repository of Demopolis history. Today, this building serves as home for the Marengo County History and Archives Museum Foundation, Inc.

Rather unique post-war rehab:

I’ve seen metal, and I’ve seen stone, but to be honest I’ve never seen a combo like this.

Now and then we see a building where the top seems in better shape than the ground floor. This is one of them.

George's!

George's what?