Downtown Grand Island, Nebraska

One of the recurring topics on this blog has been downtown Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Now that we’ve moved up to Grand Island, Nebraska and are actually living downtown it only makes sense, in my mind, to continue in this same vein in this new (to us) community.

This is the view looking east on Third Street from our living room window. I thought it a bit ironic that just one of the buildings in this block lacks the apparently original(-ish) second-floor facade, and that that building houses an antique mall.

Antique stores are a staple of downtown Grand Island. My father’s business, the Milestone Gallery, joined the cadre of retailers selling old and used items about a year ago. Downtown Grand Island seems to be going in the right direction, although the revivification doesn’t appear as dramatic as in Siloam Springs on account of being a much larger area with many more buildings. More living spaces would help, as would a restaurant that isn’t focused on selling alcohol. A thai place is supposed to be going into the building labeled “Alley Cat” in the photo above. Others have come and gone in the past decade.

More will follow as I meet more of the people living and working in this part of the community.