Edina, Missouri Storefront

Onassis Modern, Macon

I stumbled across this Onassis Modern bank building in downtown Macon earlier this month, and thought it makes for a great contrast between the late 19th century streetscape and the newer building, probably built in the 1960's.Obviously, demolition of two story storefronts occurred for the building of this bank, leaving an oddly incongruous one story corner.Here is a detail of the stone work on the front. I suspect this bank may have been the replacement for the older, august building across the street featured yesterday.

Macon Bank Building

I came across this wonderful bank building in downtown Macon recently, and it is particularly striking how dense this northern Missouri town still is. While the buildings are what I would call "underoccupied," they nonetheless are receiving some maintenance and use.The terracotta details on this building are amazing, and a testament to the craftsmanship now so sorely lacking in much modern construction.This building has so many details, I could look at it for hours.

Kirksville Post Office

El Train Shots

I took the following photos in Chicago recently, all of which are either on El platforms or in trains above the Loop. It's like a whole other landscape up above the streets.

Old Foundations

I love these old foundations with their massive stone arches laid bare, across from the Union Electric power plant on the north riverfront.

Chopped Off Skyscraper

I still cannot believe they chopped off the top of an historic skyscraper, only to build a bizarre green and blue monstrosity on top of the first three floors.But, hey, as long as you don't look up, you can pretend you're still on the old LaSalle Street.

Musique concrète

Zoo

Empire State Building from the Bowery

Blees Military Academy, Macon

Forest Llewelyn Cemetery, Kirksville

The original cemetery of Kirksville is a fascinating, strange place to observe the different styles of tombstones and monuments over the course of the last 150 years. If you look closely at the stone below, you can see a woman crying on another woman's shoulder

Kirksville High School

Like much of America, Kirksville ditched its historic, pedestrian friendly high school for a sprawling suburban, car oriented building on the outskirts of town in the 1950's. The old high school has sat empty for decades.The interior looks like a cave, with actual stalactites hanging from the ceiling, the result of decades of water damage. I once went to a student art show here back in college; each person took their own room and literally hung their works on moss covered walls.

Adair

The little hamlet of Adair, in eastern Adair County, is a textbook example of the shrinking of the rural population of Missouri. What little remains, however, is striking. The beautiful church, while looking a little bedraggled in the rain, still graces the hill above the town.Across the street, a small store sits, slowly decaying.

A Chopped Off Mansion, Kirksville

It may be hard to believe, but the building shown in these two pictures once was a massive mansion that rose no fewer than four stories tall. Then one day, some genius decided to tear down the top three floors and leave the trunk of the building to become a supermarket. If you look closely, you can still see the remnants of two turrets, one in front and one in back that graced the once stately house on Franklin Street.

Shelbina, Missouri

Shelbina is not what you might call the most wildly exciting town in Northeast Missouri, but it still has a few examples of wonderful late 19th Century architecture. The building below is a great example of the solid architecture that graced every corner of the state, before the coming of mass produced convenience stores designed seemingly to promote banality.The stone row seen in the pictures appears to have been anchored by a bank in the center, and was flanked by stores on either side. You can actually read the word pharmacy written in stone above one of the storefronts.It's a shame that such attention to detail that this one row exhibits cannot be replicated.This last photo is a demonstration of what happens when you don't look through the viewfinder of your camera when you take a picture.