Almost eight thousand souls. Wikipedia: “It was named for railroad magnate John Insley Blair, who was credited with bringing the railroad to town." Train-related bad news:

“In March 1869, a small child playing on a railroad turntable in town was injured on the turntable. The father sued the railway for damages, leading all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1873 case Sioux City & Pacific Railroad Co. v. Stout." Stout won. I think he got $7500.

OUMB, Eighties style.

It’s not bad, it’s not great, it’s just . . . a thing.

“We won’t tell you what we do in here, but there shouldn’t be any doubt about when we finished the building."

Probably a bank.

Handsome. Not the original colors, but proof that paint can improve things and give an ordinary building unexpected gravitas.

A bank, I’m sure, and one that spent a lot of money to look modern and impressive.

The ill-advised brick choice for the handicapped ramp is inexplicable. But I’m more interested in those basement windows. It looks as if it sunk.

July, 2024: Of course there's a little Buckaroo-top't shed roof.

October, 2024: For some reason the Google car made another pass, perhaps to clear up rumors that the awning was going to go.

The pediment looks as if everything was pried off and sold.

What’s up with the second floor windows? Did they buy some overstock of imitation Roman shields?

Another paint job up top, but it works. PIERCE! Would he have approved of the inconsistency of the wooden rehab on the ground floor?

Quite a presumption in the window.

What an unusual building.

For one thing, the ad is about a store across the street. Fine, okay. But the way the corner angles in. The idiosyncratic cornice:

The interior of the store, from this eBay listing.

Matching the windows makes for a headscratcher. You can see how it’s configured, but it seems odd, and small.

Beautiful old vitrolite rehab. I’m a sucker for those.

Let all present know what they gathered here to do.

Newer than most of the faded signs we usually see.

The brand arrangement is your clue that this probably wasn't done by an official brand ambassador.

A blinded building with unfortunate scar tissue, selling that bad stuff.

It had a much more wholesome purpose once.

Yee and/or haw, it’s the Buckaroo Twins:

If I had to guess, I’d say it was an OUMB, once.

Hard to fathom why the glass had such a steep angle, except that the space was intended as a big light court with no purpose, not even seating.