While there is the typical suburban sprawl on the edge of Lincoln, I was impressed by the overall strength and health of the downtown area of the city.

There is little loss of the street wall around the courthouse square, and there is even a little theater district!

There are two restored theaters, and rather ingeniously, the space between the two has been in-filled with what are obviously new storefront façades that give a sense of a continuous street wall. It’s very well done.

Looking closely now, unfortunately the Lincoln Theater seems to be abandoned, unfortunately.

Note the storefronts on the first floor of the theater, not wasting any frontage along the sidewalk like in a big city.

Heading northeast on Kickapoo Street, there is a row of occupied and well-maintained storefronts.

Interesingly, it seems like few of them ever received any Modernist “slipcovers,” or if they did, they have been removed.

The building below, I suspect, was once a bank.

Now I spy some slipcovers…

There’s a second downtown, of sorts, facing the railroad line South Sangamon Street, with some impressive three story Italianate buildings, which I suspect one or two were originally hotels at one point.