Abandoned Buildings and Forgotten Businesses (Part 2)
On my cross-country trip in 2017, I quickly gained fascination for stores, cafes, and other places which went out of business and left empty buildings in their wake. I found many such places in small towns, on state routes, and in rural areas.
I imagined the buildings bustling with activity. Perhaps it was a diner where locals and tourists alike sat at the counter, watching the cooks prepare their meals; a gas station fueling up cars in long distances between towns on lonely roads; a motel with a quaint name; or a store of some sort. Sometimes it is only a shell, with boarded up windows and doors, scratched paint, and decaying wood. Other times the remnants of signage or the presence of artifacts give clues as to the former occupant.
In any case, I found it enthralling to stand outside such places, absorb the surroundings, and wonder what happened to these businesses. This post is divided into two, with one reviewing gas, food, and lodging, and the other businesses and unknown buildings.
McNabb Music Co., Bunkie, Louisiana. The Internet reveals an established family by that name residing in Bunkie but it’s not clear when this business was established or closed. [2017]At the junction of Highways 6 and 375 in southern Nevada sits the Warm Springs Bar & Café and a handful of other vacated and dilapidated buildings. They are all that’s left of a small town (first settled in 1866) that served as a stopover on freighters and stages traveling to Elko and Eureka. [2017]Prosperity, South Carolina is a town of about 1,200. This bank began operation in the early 1900s and went away with the Great Depression. Though the building was used for other purposes the original signage is intact. Signage also remains for the post office in Corinth, Kentucky, which now exists at a new address. [2019, 2021]Voyles Barber Shop, Hardinsburg, Indiana; Eaddy’s 66 in Daviston, South Carolina, which sold “General Merchandise”; historic building in Benton Hot Springs – the plaque reads “This old building has listened to the sounds of civilization passing it’s door for 100 years…” (it was originally opened as Wells Fargo Agency and General Store in 1869); Smarty Pants Preschool in Hardin, Montana. [2021, 2017, 2017, 2017]Bradley Salvage, Interstate Auto Body Shop, and a convenience store in Omaha, Nebraska. [2017]Rosie’s Diner and Beach Bum Tanning in Erick, Oklahoma; Shear Magic in Joanna, South Carolina; a building containing a video store, a hair stylist business, and a pharmacy in Caliente, Nevada – the latter operated from 1958 until 2001, when owner Grover Swallow, an esteemed family man and community figure then in his 70s, sold it; antique store in Harrison, Montana. [All 2017 except Shear Magic, 2019]Vacant commercial property in or near Pulaski, Georgia. [2017]Three unique buildings in the hamlet of Weston, Idaho. They look like movie set pieces. [2017]Three buildings in Bunkie, Louisiana. [2017]The Ready Theatre in Niles, Michigan – it opened in 1927 and closed in 2005 when the owner, Moore Theatres, moved into a new building and named it the Wonderland Cinema; an abandoned casino in Nevada; two buildings in Tucumcari, New Mexico; a pair of shuttered businesses in Erick, Oklahoma. [2017]The Cherokee Fun Park in Cherokee, North Carolina. The attractions included mini-golf, Bumper Boats, and an arcade, but the star feature was the 30-foot tall go-kart “Twister Track,” which resembled a giant donut. The earliest Trip Advisor review of the park was in July 2014; the last a year later. [2019]
The Blue Charley Chronicles 