Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Downtown Kirksville













9 comments:

  1. Chris,

    Thank you for these pictures. I went to Truman and have been in nearly all of these.

    On the west side of the "Square" is a movie theatre that takes up the entire west block. They built it there when I was in school...probably 98-99...somewhere in there. I was really pissed when they razed an entire block of buildings to erect that horrible piece of garbage. Movie theatres with multiple screens do not belong in a downtown historic distric. Only historic theatres with one screen should be allowed there.

    Anyway, regardless of their poor decision making on the theatre, Kirksville does have some great old buildings. Many are off the beaten path. I'll be there this weekend for Homecoming, so I'll have to snoop to make sure all of my favorites are still there.

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  2. My senior year was when they demolished the buildings on the west side of the square; they basically destroyed what was a very intact example of late 19th century civic space. Kirksville is not known for its historic preservation.

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  3. No they aren't. The demolition of the Shoe Factory is another good example. A developer with some money could have made a fortue by converting that space into student housing.

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  4. Yeah, can you believe they tore down the shoe factory? So shortsighted--especially since it's nothing but a vacant lot now. I was so excited to photograph the factory when I was up there, only to be very disappointed.

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  5. I've actually been in the Shoe Factory. It was really quite amazing.

    I just got back from my trip. I'm sad to say that I think the downtown area is worse than ever. Very few buildings are functioning businesses and the maintenance is deplorable on most everything north of Jefferson and east of Marion.

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  6. You didn't happen to take any pictures in the factory, did you? I agree about the downtown area--it just seems really dead now compared to 1996-2000. I think part of it is students not patronizing enough businesses up there.

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  7. No, unfortunately I didn't take pictures. I lived next door to the building for two years and have a few exterior photos if you'd be interested in those. I'm not sure how you'd rate the photos either, since photograhphy is not really my bag. I do not have pictures of the interior.

    The interior was frigtening! I was in it one night on Halloween. Of course we weren't supposed to be in there, and thinking back, it was actually a very dangerous place to venture in the dark. We could have died in there very easily. But my friends and I were not known for intelligent decision making skills in our college years.

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  8. Neither were my friends! But seriously, if you have any pictures, they're better than mine--which is none. Let me know, and I will credit you when I post them.

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  9. Well, I know right where they are. I'll have to mail them to you. Maybe I have some other photos in the stack as well. Send me your address. bst2712@gmail.com

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