Main Street

When you drive through small towns in the American Midwest today, the main thoroughfares tend to look pretty much the same. At least that’s what I used to think. Once I had a camera in my hand, I started to look a lot closer.

“In the small town of Hannibal, Missouri, when I was a boy, everybody was poor, but didn’t know it. And everybody was comfortable and did know it.”

- Mark Twain

Every small town building on the main street has a unique story of its own to tell. Much of the time I can tell what the original building’s purpose was, or at least take an educated guess. Sometimes I can discern something about intervening occupants, even though by the time I come along it is either completely abandoned, in some phase of remodeling and reconstruction, or serving as a home for multiple occupants and many different purposes. I see these buildings almost as historical artifacts that map out the rise and fall of the town, its citizens, and the surrounding area.