This Old Building

If buildings could talk the one located at 290 Main Street would surely have some stories to tell. It's an old building, and all the local folks in town have some memories of it. Whether it's a recollection of a time when they were actually inside the building, attending some event or another, or whether they just recall passing it everyday as they drove by on their way to or from some other place, everybody in town knows the building at 290 Main Street.

 Just about every old timer, it seems, has a story or two to share about the old place, and I've heard a few of them. I've lived in this building since the early 1990's, and so I have a few stories of my own about this old place. I don't own the building (my brother is actually the landlord) but I've called it home for nearly twenty years, and have grown quite attached to it. The local people never refer to it as "290 Main Street," depending on who you're talking with they'll either refer to it as "the old Odd Fellows hall" (because it used to belong at one time to the Order of Odd Fellows) or they'll call it "the old Catholic Church" or "the old auction house." It's been many things to many people.

The original building, legend has it, was build in the late 1860's (or possibly 1870's) by a Norwegian immigrant. Over the years the building has been used for many things, including: an auction house, a movie theatre, square dances, a grange, saloon, ice cream parlor, barber shop, indoor shooting range, factory, Catholic Church, lawyer's office, apartments, and Odd Fellows meeting hall.

Currently it houses my apartment, and art studio, on the first floor, and a landscape architect's studio on the second floor. This blog is my attempt to tell a bit of the story of this old building, as well as some of my own story.