Drum me out of the historic preservation corps if you wish, but I wish they hadn’t done it. Done what? This. Restored the buildings. On the left you have the Lugar store, with its trademark arches; the three-story structure is the main Herbst department store, and I cannot believe how small it looks. When I was a kid the facades were hidden behind a vast sheet of metal, with the Herbst logo over the second floor. It made the stores look immense – granted, I was under a yard in height myself, and easily impressed. But this was the big department store. DeLendrecies had quality; Herbst had heft and size and a certain chic quality I can’t describe. Put it this way: Herbst was most likely to have the cool toy and the mod tie and the smart scarf.

The big metal wall was a common feature of downtown department stores in the 50s and 60s, and not entirely a bad idea. Modernizing the ground floor and leaving the upper floors untouched made the top stories look forlorn and scorned; a big metal wall wrapped it up in one big new package. Three stories of modern bargains! Compete with that, Mister Strip Mall!

I wish I had a picture of the old façade – or rather the new façade, which was old in 1990, so – oh, never mind. Here’s a shot of the site before they ripped up the misbegotten pedestrian mall; the trees make it look as though the building is hiding in shame:

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