We begin with a peculiar OUMB, because it’s not particularly ugly, and not particularly Modern, and is not necessarily the style of a bank. The rare early Renaissance look:

The odd thing about it? Looks as if there’s a rock garden in front of the door.

The ground floor of the building on the left doesn’t make sense. Where’s the door?

Either an addition or a rehab, and if you look at the bricks, a rehab seems possible. Likely.

It’s like they built a brick cage around a house they’d trapped.

Well, there’s a lot going on here.

Different bricks, Buckaroo overhang, blinded window, tiny window inserted.

I wonder if I was in a mood when I did this, or whether everything about the town was just . . . off.

The nuclear explosion seared their shapes into the wall

Okay, let’s remember the banner image, and reorient ourselves. This is the downtown.

BLITCH:

There’s a Blitch lane in town. There’s a Blitch family farming the area. There’s a small town to the north named Blitch, after its founder, W. H. Blitch, a local merchant.

Both have a severe indent, and do the best they can with it.

The arches are repeated in the next door building, which has no connection:

This makes me uneasy.

Too much tower. Overscaled and odd.

Signs of past modernization enthusiasms. These bricks will change downtown! No, these shapes will do it. Octagonal sidewalks will make us thrive.

The swoopy copper 60s wedge, ready to be shoved down to smash the hapless pedestrian.

I’m hoping that’s a law firm; otherwise I’m having a stroke.

The standard rote 70s style. Whole lotta brick inconsistency goin’ on, too.

Ah: nice marquee, and a cool-hued facade.

A bit less impressive from this angle. Opened as the Georgia in ’36.

Another imprisonment job:

Ah: almost completely untouched/

You know one. What’s the other?

It’s like a color-blindness test. Eventually one word pops out, almost audibly.

If I had to guess, and I am, and I don’t have to, but I want to, I’d say it was a department store that did a mid-century makeover, and everyone was pleased. Really made the town look up-to-date!

But nothing stays still. Let’s paint it!

It’ll be different! Not as good, but different, which is better!