On A Matter of Downtowns---


A couple more...

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This roof is suspended(?) over this small structure...

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Jim 68cuda said:
Last August, while in Ohio for a car show, I took a side trip to see the small town where my dad grew up. I ended up taking pictures of all the buildings in town and most of the houses. Heres a link to the photos.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=124151347631924&id=100001111775214&aid=12401&l=329afc939c
Click to expand...

This weekend I went to my family's cabin in Luray, Virginia, and I took a few photos of the downtown area in Luray. The town of Luray is located in a valley between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Skyline Drive is at the top of the mountain at the east end of town, and the South Fork of the Shenandoah River is on the west side of the valley a few miles west of town. Norfolk and Southern runs trains north and south through the valley. I have only seen coal hoppers (full going north and empty going south). The only industry in town is the Wrangler Jeans factory. It was closed today, but is surrounded by trailers for Wal-Mart, Target, Lee Jeans, and mostly Wrangler. Luray is a farming community, but some residents commute an hour and a half to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC to work.
Its also a tourist area with Luray Caverns, Skyline Drive, The George Washington National Forest, and the Shenandoah River for canoeing, tubing and fishing as the attractions. Just about 25 yards past the Luray train station (now the visitor center) and the Farmer's Co-op, RT 340 curves under the track while both bridges cross Hawksbill Creek, which was the setting 56 years ago for the well known night time photo by Winston Link of the Norfolk and Western engine crossing the bridge over the swimming hole (Google Hawksbill Creek Swiming Hole).

Here are several pictures of the town as it looks today.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.414004025313320.88594.100001111775214&type=3&l=8d628376dd


Heres the station which is now the towns Visitor Center.
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Here's a downtown oddity that's always puzzled me.
The Westminster Md station on the Western Maryland Railway. An east coast structure with a Spanish tile roof?

Sadly, it was razed in 1969 and only color postcards and b&w photos exist today.
 
kbkchooch said:
Here's a downtown oddity that's always puzzled me.
The Westminster Md station on the Western Maryland Railway. An east coast structure with a Spanish tile roof?

Sadly, it was razed in 1969 and only color postcards and b&w photos exist today.
Click to expand...

The tera cotta tile roofs were popular in east coast cities at one time. Many of the older homes, built some time after the turn of the last century, in the northwest part of Washington, DC have the tile roofs, and even in small towns its not uncommon to find a 100 year old tile roofed house here and there. But, while they have a tile roof, they don't have the mediterranean style architecture thats usually associated with that style roof. In the link I just posted of pictures of buildings in Luray, Virginia, the hundred year old stone building at the entrance to Luray Caverns has a tile roof.


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kbkchooch said:
That mural of the station is unreal,,looks almost like you could walk into it!!
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I kind of like that mural as well. Its on a concrete retaining wall that separates parking for the main street shops from the railroad tracks which are at a slightly higher elevation. I'm thinking that when a train goes though town, it may be mostly visible above the wall.

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blownoutcylinder said:
As an aside to the downtown stuff we have here there are older houses that tend to be somewhat part of an older downtown that we see--L-R: Old mill building--some think old labourers cottages but---, going up hill in Galt ON, Elora ON backs of stores --- residences--, old stone house in Elora ON--
Click to expand...
Are those bridge piers from a former railroad right of way?
 
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