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Archive for downtowns – Page 5

signs . Memphis, TN No. 3

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I love noticing signs. How letters in two dimension or three dimension interact with the built environment. How they intersect our views of our surroundings. How they communicate in digital or molded or hand-drawn ways, I love the ones made at signsofreilly.com. When we visit places, I usually snap lots of photos of signage — it’s just a quirk my children have come to accept about their Mommy! Yes, I suppose it’s been the source of a few eye-rolls from the kiddos on our sidewalk and back road adventures.

This weekend, we are visiting Memphis, Tennessee again to see The Lion King — big excitement! In anticipation, I’ve been looking through photos from our last two trips there, and thought I would share a few letters and numbers!

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go . Post Office on Jefferson Street

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Hundreds of little metal doors with tiny windows marked with hand-painted numbers in red and gold. I have to admit it’s why I love to walk in the post office in Macon, MS. I wander in there every now and then when I’m visiting my parents hometown because it’s filled with interesting shapes and textures. And those little decorative, but time-worn doors.  They are so fascinating to me for some reason.

The lobby is a tiny L-shaped space where folks still come to check their mail. I’m not sure when the structure was built, but it has the tall, chicken-wire laced windows and warm woodwork you don’t often see in more modern public buildings. Plus, the north wall contains a painting created by Douglass Crockwell through the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, dated 1944.

Mr. Crockwell became a fairly popular artist in the 1940s-50s creating advertisements and cover art for some notable companies as well as the Saturday Evening Post. The work was created more specifically under the jurisdiction of the US Treasury Department in its Treasury Section of Fine Arts designed to offer artists commission work to create paintings and sculptures for public spaces in the 30s and 40s. The painting depicts the “Signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.”

I imagine walking into the Post Office would be a lot like it was in the 1950s if it weren’t for the glossy posters touting first class mail and “forever” stamps. It still has hand-painted signs for the “office” part of the Post Office and the now-dissolved “Civil Service Commission”. The stained wood is still polished and pock-marked next to newer, more modern metal stands and the metal sliding door covering the postal counter.

Every time I wander in, I always wish for a tiny key to slip into box number 534 or some other sacred address to turn the lock and retrieve some treasured bit of correspondence.

[Macon Post Office, 201 Jefferson Street; Macon, MS]

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Peace on Earth

Small pond views are always a little wacky and endearing all at the same time. I love this photograph. I took it several years ago in Macon, Mississippi. Macon is a typical small Mississippi town, and I happen to know it well because my parents live there. The photo was taken from the second floor of the old Noxubee County Jail. The structure is on the National Register of Historic Places and was beautifully restored and converted to the county library. It’s quite an experience to visit the stacks inside the old jail cells and see the remains of gallows when walking through the hallways.

The back view of the lighted tinsel “Peace on Earth” spanning Jefferson Street captured from one of the jail cells’ barred windows is an ironic and poignant juxtaposition.

Small Ponds: Northport, Alabama

I few weeks ago, I was in Tuscaloosa, AL at a client meeting. On the way home, I took the opportunity to stop by one of my favorite little downtown areas — Northport, AL. This small town is adjacent to Tuscaloosa. You wouldn’t know you were leaving one and driving to the other if it weren’t for the city limit signs. Northport offers a very well-done historic downtown area, and I try to stop in whenever I’m close.

Filled with shops, restaurants, and galleries, Northport has preserved a downtown that offers what my architecture school days termed “walkability.” The area is very pedestrian-friendly, one of the qualities that makes a downtown worth visiting and re-visiting. The scale of the streets is close so the storefronts offer a nice sense of enclosure on the main avenue. Brick pavers covering the sidewalks lend a tactile and visual texture to a leisurely walk. Plus, tree and window box plantings give the area a welcoming feel that minimizes the presence of concrete and pavement. In fact, during my walk up and down the street, I barely even noticed the cars even though all the parking spaces were filled and there was a continual flow of traffic. The layout of streetside parking included large plantings repeated down each side

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of the street. Sets of three of four parking spaces were offset by landscaped areas that extended into the parking zone. It had the great affect of making me almost blind to the chrome and metal.

The downtown area was filled with colorful imagery, from fun store window displays to unique signs. Of course, I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots of hand-painted signs for the “Signs of Life” series. I’ll share a few others later, but this one was found on an alley off the main avenue in a path leading to other restaurants and shops.

For me, no trip to Northport is complete without a stop at my very favorite shop, The Potager. The store is a fun combination of garden elements, home accessories, bed and bath items and old postcards and prints. It shares space with an antique shop if that strikes your fancy as well. A stop inside offers a breath of fresh air for the senses. Bare concrete floors give the store an outdoor feel that makes it seem like you’ve just stepped into someone’s private garden. The owners keep several birds in a large wire cage by the counter–one of those traditional Victorial styles. The sounds of the birds chirping and flitting add a nice backdrop for shopping along with classical music. One reason I stop into The Potager with each visit to Northport, is the lavender. The store sells dried lavender buds by the ounce along with linen or starched cotton sachets ready to be filled–a very nice gift to myself and my chiffrobe drawers. They also carry one of my favorite lines of bathing products, Pre de Provence. This trip I picked up a set of guest soaps in assorted spicy scents and a tube of Verbena hand lotion. Very nice.

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