A natural death to make way for progress.

There is a haunting beauty to be found in many of the decaying buildings in this city. They remind me of  the elderly, largely ignored, taken for granted. Like our old folk, we wait on these buildings to die. Eager to replace them with something new. A road, a bridge, another structure of some kind or other. Progress, give it a name. We put our old people in the ground to be forgotten by the next generation. We bulldoze our past,to make way for something new. We move on, until the day  it's our turn to become a distant fading memory.

Over 100 years of history, first one purpose, then another. Eventually  outliving it's usefulness.

Time leaves its mark. We grow old and gray, not much to look at, barely given a passing glance. The stories we could tell die with us. Just like the stories that still reside in this  old building. It began life at the turn of the last century as an old folks home for couples, at some point in time it became a seminary. Now it sits on a hill falling apart and forgotten.  Even in its present state, like some aging once beautiful woman, if you stop long enough to look, you can see what once was. If you stop long enough to really look, she can still take your breath away. Old and graying falling in around itself, forgotten if it was ever remembered in the first place.
Countless people in this city can tell you all about a building that sits on the plaza, among dozens of buildings that look exactly the same.  Only a handful can tell you where this building sits, 21st and Tracy, even fewer can tell you what it was, or who built it and why. She was constructed for $42,000.00 in 1904.

A new road , a new bridge, progress edges ever closer. Before long she will be gone, taking her stories with her. All across this city history is dying a slow death.  For us death is inevitable, and I suppose it's the same for most buildings.
From old hospitals...........

Old schools...........

 Old churches............

Before long they will all be gone. Replaced by progress. Forgotten. The stories and history covered in dirt.. If it's any consolation, you can always buy some overpriced bullshit in a stucco clad plaza building, that will go out of vogue before you can even get it home. So, there's that..........