Downtown -- Don't Blink

Yesterday was beautiful and sunny, so we went downtown to explore and take some photographs. I am compiling the first set into a panorama image.

The town is quiet. Shops that could or should be open are not. The jeweler and pawn shop close at 3 on Saturdays, the coffee shop at 6. Most of the store fronts are empty, the upper floors boarded up or in obvious disrepair (with a few exceptions). I find little clues about the town's past and I am fascinated. How did it go from a thriving downtown to a ghost town? There are people living here. Why are they hiding?

There used to be a luxury hotel and a trolley. There were four photographic studios (from what I can tell). And at the end of the street, there is a mammoth five story building, covered in white and copper-green terra-cota tiles, an elaborate tile mosaic floor in a lobby just past a rotating glass door, from which you can see the grand banister of the sweeping staircase. This landmark is the "Ben Hur Life" building, constructed in the early twentieth century by the Tribe of Ben Hur, a fraternal organization (one of the only ones based on a fictional book). The fire escape stairs go all the way to the ground, so we climbed this silent monolith and peered into the windows of each floor-- quiet, empty, abandoned.

Google reveled this article, dated from almost five years ago, dubbing this an endangered historic landmark, and proclaiming it would soon be rescued. The article is filled with hope about the value of past monuments. My visit to the building showed something went very very wrong.

On a lighter note, we attended our first soirée last evening at a fellow faculty's home. It is such a relief to communicate with others-- we are such social beasts.