Yes, it's week two of the Old Auditorium Recollections. Actually, no. Just forgot to post this last week, and it has nothing to do with the auditorium. First: here's a picture of a proposed addition. In the days before computer graphics, someone one had to draw in the dotted lines with correction fluid.
Zoom in, and we see an example of a vanishing species: the neighborhood bar.
Here it's the charmingly named "1400 Tap Room," also a Cafe, a Restaurant, and "The Friendly Meeting Place." Behind it, a small hotel called the "1500 Hotel." Yes, the neighborhood was awash in romantic place names, wasn't it? Note the enormous billboards and the painted wall ad for Grain Belt. Add the neon and the overhanging sign, and you have . . .
A) An interesting, vital street
B) Blight
If you were an urban renewal expert of the era, you'd probably say B. These were the things that made cities such a mess. They needed to be flattened and rebuilt along rational lines. And so they were. I believe this is the scene today.
