So many of these features start out with something old, neglected, bleak, and sad. Well:

That’s a good sign, isn’t it? Almost European. But of course American cities can look European, in their own way. (Which is American.)

You can romanticize this era as a time when beauty and tradition was respected, but remember:

It was also an era of toothaches and BO.

Google: “Consistory, (from Latin consistorium, “assembly place”), a gathering of ecclesiastical persons for the purpose of administering justice or transacting business, particularly meetings of the Sacred College of Cardinals with the pope as president.”

Specific searches turn up “Scottish Rite” and “wedding venue.”

		"I don’t see any enemy forces coming from this direction."

It's the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors monument.

You don’t see a lot of statues for Civil War sailors.

Smash-cutting to the future, it’s this week’s OUMB:

 . . . and the serene rebuke on another block.

Stylized Federal Moderne is one of my favorite styles.

This has a true Art Deco aspect, with some nearly-full-strength classic references as well. One of a kind, perhaps.

From any angle, the tower looks overscaled.

A building ought not to be mostly tower.

Nice little modern structure; It’d say mid 60s, because of the shape of the panels above the window. The start of late-modernism’s kitschy baroque period.

This is what came next:

Aggregate around the recessed  punchcard windows, I think. An original Buckaroo revival-style roof. Utter crap.

Just . . . awful.

I saw that one! It was an 80s beach sex-romp.

Cinematreasures:

(In 1998) it was in terrible shape and I was amazed that it was still functioning. The ceiling had been dropped and many of the ceiling tiles were missing. Sheet panelling covered most of interior so it was impossible to see any of the theatre’s original detailing. There appeared to be almost as many broken seats as there were unbroken.

All new, or a wrap-around?

Both are possible.

A bit too much tower, but not as bad as before.

A nice place. That’s all I got, so I assume that’s all there was. More or less.