Category: Afield
Posts from further afield
Fourth Street, Burlington, Iowa
I walked through an alley down by the railyards, and came back up Fourth Street, which is what I would call the secondary main street of downtown Burlington. There are surprisingly few vacant lots or parking lots; most of the downtown along these two streets is intact. My favorite building in the town was this…
Third Street, Burlington, Iowa
Starting at the top of Third Street in downtown Burlington, Iowa, I walked down the hill into the heart of the city’s business district. Like most Iowa towns along the Mississippi River, there are steep hills and bluffs rising up from the riverfront, and Burlington is no different. I was amazed at the wide variety…
First Haymarket Monument, Chicago
For generations, the Haymarket Riot was commemorated in Chicago in a memorial to the police officers. After years of being attacked, blown up, and otherwise vandalized, it was replaced with the current memorial, which memorializes the workers executed after the riot. The old statue sits safely behind a barricade outside of Chicago’s police headquarters in…
Carson Pirie Scott: A Solution for the Railway Exchange Building
What will we do with the giant empty hulk of the Railway Exchange Building? It seems that the age of the august department store in downtown is over, because, despite angry nostalgia when they close, nobody shops at them. My heart sunk when I walked in to buy a wedding gift at the downtown Macy’s…
The Old Farmhouse, Pleasantview Road
Update: The house was destroyed sometime in the first half of 2019. Amazing how a change of seasons and the passage of over half a year can change a building. The old farmhouse outside of Washington, Illinois, is still clinging to life, but as you can see from earlier pictures, there has been a vast…
Redevelopment at Pleasantview School, Washington Township, Central Illinois
Woah, something has been happening at the old Pleasantview School! We learned from our family’s friend (and distant cousin to my father, possibly six degrees removed) who had actually attended the school as a boy that the building is being converted into public storage. The asbestos abatement had to occur first, which explains the plastic…
Mt. Sterling United Methodist Church, Mt. Sterling, Van Buren County, Iowa
Update: As of August 2017, the church was still standing, based off of photos I found on-line. It looks like the church was active from 1900-1996. I also have updated the name of the church in February of 2020. The town of Mt. Sterling was officially disincorporated after 105 years of existence on April 11,…
New Clark County Courthouse, Kahoka
Update: The Clark County Commissioners consented to a judgment on April 10, 2011, agreeing to repay $20,000 of the $57,500 grant they had received from the State of Missouri to renovate the old courthouse they had demolished. Your tax dollars at work. No word on whether they ever found a buyer for the cupola, or if…