Well, this didn't start out to be an architectural blog, but it seems everything that's crossed my mind to write about lately has been tied to buildings. Maybe I can apply for extra credit in that American Architecture class from 30+ years ago. LOL!!!
The last few days I've been intrigued as I drove into town from my house watching the progress on a building project. The building in question has been in my lifetime a skating rink, a bowling alley, an office building and a funeral home. Currently, it's nearing use for some other purpose. I'm curious to see what's next.
I had that on my mind last night as we had a Board of Directors meeting for the Dorcheat Historical Association in the back room of the museum, the future home of our Educational Center. The museum building has in its "lifetime" been home to an auto repair shop, a newspaper, a printing company, an office supply store and now, a museum. Just up the street on the corner you have a building I mentioned in an earlier post that has served as a bank, a drug store, a clothing store and is today a beauty shop.
Two blocks down is the Miller Building. It its 90 years of existence with a basement, main floor and upstairs office space, it has been home to so many different enterprises. Today, we have a church on the main floor, as a child I knew that building as TG&Y, earlier generations knew it as a drug store, in the recent past it has also been home to a bank and a photo studio and many other businesses of which I was either unware or I have forgotten. The basement has housed everything from a wrestling arena to beauty shops and health spas. Upstairs has been home to offices of doctors, lawyers and even the local draft board.
In short, old buildings, in addition to architectural character, often have fascinating histories that tell much about growth and change in our community.
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Wouldn't it be great to take the memories we have of buildings we have seen in the past and turn them to pics. I remember talking to an old timer in the community where I grew up, there was only a store, church and some houses. But he painted a picture of a community with a cotton gen, railroad, school, blacksmith shop and various general stores. Boy if I could have tapped his memory and put those images into digital images, that would be amazing. I am amazed how things how things have changed in Bernice just down the road. I remember going into a store there that you paid your bills there and they even had the operator working a switchboard. Well things keep changing. I wish I could get those pics out of my mind to publish, that would be something. Now we have digital picture taking everywhere and i suspect finding the documentation of things in the future won't be as hard to find as it is now.
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