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07 March 2015

Old And New - Missoula, Montana

I love the adjacent abiding of old and new. (Hmmm... is this partly why I love The Best Husband Ever? Haha!) Walking through a town or city, this juxtaposition in architecture hints toward a common story of the life of the place. Stately & ornate founding buildings often occupied ample surrounding real estate, befitting their original importance to the region's commerce or government. Generations later, infill construction made room for growth and trail-blazing enterprise near the city's core. On a downtown stroll, I gain appreciation of city fathers who embraced progress yet recognized the value of existing historic structures. Conversely, it's a bleak sight that greets a traveller to any town which razed all the old to make way for the new. Especially if the new was of the 1970s mass-production institutional variety. Vast stretches of low-slung aluminum-framed windows do little to inspire the soul. These did not weather well under the test of time, unlike the more place-conscious modern design of, say Frank Lloyd Wright
Timeline patterns can also be seen in a neighbourhood stroll - Victorian farmhouses granted a little room to Craftsman  bungalows, leaving plenty of ground to squeeze in a wave of ranch ramblers, now all sharing space in a single block, albeit with slightly adjusted lot lines.
Your walk around the block takes on a whole new aspect when you ponder the why-and-when-and-who stories behind each structural style. Just don't ponder too long at any one house - we don't want folks thinking of you as Creepy Stalker Neighbour.

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