Praise the Lord for Frederick J. Bandholtz and his panoramic photos of several towns around northeastern Iowa, including the downtown of Independence. Above you can see straight ahead Second Avenue Northeast, which looks much the same now as it did then. We’ll start up at the north end of the block at Second Street Northeast and walk south to the T-bone intersection with First Street East.

After the Romanesque Revival building above, we then are treated to some of the most intact rows of Italianate storefronts I have seen anywhere in America.

But then we are also treated to this Streamline Moderne movie theater, which are also hiding out in small towns across America.

We reach the intersection with First Street East, which is where the panoramic photograph was taken.

Some of the ornament is missing from the building on the northwest corner, but the intersection is still very well preserved and looks great.

Update: New photography added in July of 2023.

Further up Second Avenue, the street becomes residential and there are several nice examples of housing architecture from the decades after the Civil War.