On Taking Time to Photograph

Often while traveling around the city, I’ll get out of my car or dismount my bike and take some photos of structures or infrastructure that I find interesting. I do this for the blog, mainly, but I’ve also come to learn the value of having a backlog of thousands of photos stored online.

One building that has undergone a change was located at 17th and Bellefontaine. I documented it for a blog post back in 2008, during the point when I was photographing various little-known urban corners around the city (note: I’m going to do this again some day, I hope):

17thandBellefontaine
Image Credit: Kevin Kastner

Yesterday I decided to revisit the corner, and noticed a change at the intersection. I wasn’t sure which building it was, but I knew the corner no longer contained that great ghost sign at the top of a building. Then I went to the ever-valuable Google Street View, where by total luck, an image appeared of the person who was actually painting the buildings.

paint

Navigating to the north on Google Street View, you’ll see an older version of the same corner:

prepaint

The old Google Street View Map will eventually be replaced by a newer run down the street (although Google has started releasing its historic data). But the photo will always be there for me if I ever need to reference it. And with the influx of smart phones and wifi uploading, there’s almost no excuse to keep me from clicking away.

Comments 3

  • Any idea when the original Groceries&Meats was painted on the building? Is there anything that is done to protect historic signs like that? Obviously not, but it seems a shame that a sign from probably the 20s or 30s just gets white washed over.

    • I’m not sure, but maybe Historic Indianapolis would be a good place to look. I’ve never seen a post on this building, and a search on the website comes up empty, but maybe they could help.

      • Hey Joan H, could you send any info on this building’s history…along with the lot ‘catty corner’ to this?
        I’ve never noticed the painted GROCERIES&MEATS sign It will be interesting to see what happens to this building (along with others) down the road, especially with the new developments happening on 16th street (TINKER FLATS, old OMAR BAKERY building, GLEANERS FOOD BANK redevelopment…along with TINKER STREET restaurant).

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