Downtown Hodgepodge

I spent a late afternoon wandering around downtown last week because I decided to go through with my proposed idea, Main Street, Exiled: Disappearing Downtowns, on a new blog Disappearing Downtowns. I will only be here in Louisiana about one more year, so this new blog is a way to keep up the ABR-style photography wherever I roam.

First was a large retail space on Main Street. There may be some trouble leasing it, as the main support beams are broken, among other issues.

A few more empty storefronts down toward the highway was the former home of design firm 2121 DTV.

Plants are really staking their claim over this space, and I'm not just talking about the creeping tendrils above and the one breaking in through the window below. 

Around back, there is a full-on botanical takeover underway.

Directly across Main Street from where the farmers' market is held is a building I've walked by numerous times but had never noticed was abandoned and in dire shape inside. It took approaching the buildings from behind to notice.

Inside, a sizable chunk of the roof is missing, scaffolding supports the rest of it, and the plants have begun reclamation. 

 

Next, a cool little office. Doesn't look like much from the outside...

But inside...I want to work here.

Finally, a former bank branch.

View in the front door, above, and drive-through, below.

 

Comments

[Jules]

So now you're approaching buildings from behind eh? Perv.

[The anonymous anonymous]

Have you checked around where the Walgreens used to be downtown? I'm curious as to how the surrounding area's survived (or not). You might want to check out the Racine building (it has an old-fashioned, attached-to-a-street-pole clock in front of it, and from what I recall, a cannon is partially submerged in the sidewalk near there?) and some of the surrounding buildings, I know there were some retail as well as office buildings surrounding it.

[Dave]

Check out the Pelican Bank building at the corner of North Blvd. and Fourth Street. For my money, it's Baton Rouge's leading downtown eyesore.