Yesterday we paid a visit to Arcadia, via their 1989 newspaper.

Today . . .

I expected more. I expected something. This is one of the sadder places we’ve visited in the five years this feature has been running.

A corner commercial structure that might have been a bank. It has three visible air conditioning units, so you might think it’s still in use.

But I don’t think so.

Across the street . . .

You see the outlines of an old building’s foundation . . .

. . and a tiny remainder that would spur an archeologist to dig.

Head up the street, past another vacant lot where something once stood, and there’s this,:

The old paving stones.

There was something next door, too.

The corner of this block:

You can tell what was here, right? A gas station. You can even see where the island was.

I don’t know what this used to be, but it goes without saying that it isn’t it anymore.

Next door, there's this - the shop windows bricked up, the roof collapsed.

In the next mostly-vacant block:

“Why yes, of course they do.”

A community hall, perhaps.

There’s a newer community hall, which seems odd, since there doesn’t seem to be much community left.

A stable?

If that’s what it was, it doesn’t seem . . . stable anymore, sorry, but how it’s survived blizzards and winds, I don’t know.

Next door:

Car’s been there a while.

Do you think it’s empty?

Or crammed with ancient junk?

On the edge of downtown, another two story building:

It would’ve broke the heart of the fellow who published that proud little Arcadia paper. There was so much more here, once.

What happened? Fire? Tornado?

Or just time?