Livingston Montana

After a while all small midwestern towns start morphing into one another.   A town more or less in the middle of nowhere,  with a more or less eviscerated main street full of abandoned, deteriorating buildings, broken windows, a pawn shop, consignment stores, a cafe or two, a bank, some bars, a beauty salon, maybe an art gallery,  sometimes a bit more, sometimes less, and always the question "Where did everyone go?".   So we weren't ready for the surprising vibrancy and sense of wholeness and relevance we found in Livingston.  There were stores to buy things, people in the street, theaters, hotels, a shoe store, fantastic art galleries.  No wonder Peter Fonda et al live here, so says Google!!!   As they say in Latin, re ipse loquator (it speaks for itself) so here are the pictures Jackie and I took there.

The first 6 photos were taken in the afternoon on the sunny side of Main Street, the last 3 were taken along  West Park Avenue which runs along side the railroad tracks.  This last photo is quite special.  An architectural gem, when function still determined form...

Built in 1946 when the station began to broadcast, it is now abandoned and in tenuous condition.  In spite of the fact that it is on the National Register of Historic Buildings, it is a mess inside and is receiving questionable attention at best as you can see from neglected look of the outside.  The station continues to broadcast from a "feed" out of Bozeman.  Someone's idea of progress, I'm sure.

Next stop, Bozman...

                                                                     Pablo