Here's what the town's website says: “Del Rio has been a proud Texas Main Street City since 2002, actively supporting expansion of the downtown economic base by assisting in recruiting more businesses to downtown, advertising available properties in the district, assisting with historic preservation efforts and streetscape improvements.”

Let’s see how that’s working out for them.

We begin with something that looks like an optical illusion: the awning is pierced by the pole, but the pole seems farther out than the pole.

What do you think this was, once? I checked CinemaTreasures.org, but it doesn’t list this as one of the closed theaters. It’s the two sets of doors and the windows that makes me think it was a movie house, but the back of the building doesn’t show anything that looks like a stage, or an auditorium. And so we begin with a mystery.

Well, this really isn’t a good sign.

Fifties stone facade, original windows - no sign it’s drawn a breath in the 21st century.

Another optical illusion: what’s going on with the sidewalk on the left?

Isn’t that a tumble-and-fall lawsuit waiting to happen?

Better than death but not too far from it:

Nice Spanish touches, and it’s interesting to see the grillwork on the top - ornamental echo of a security measure. I doubt it was there to keep the squirrels out.

“One day we woke and found the entire town had been transplanted to a strange, shadowy land where horrible creatures prowled at dusk”

Ah: signs of life.

It was the Rita when it was built in 1947, says one CinemaTreasures comment. Another says it was remodeled in 1943. Hmm.I wonder if they would let anyone have all that good war materiel in 43. Googling . . .

The original structure at this site was a theater called “The Strand,” which served Del Rio in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1941, the Strand was torn down, re-built, and renamed the “Rita Theatre.” The Rita opened on December 12, 1941.

On February 26, 1943, the Rita was destroyed by a mysterious fire that reportedly started in a storage room.

Now a city-owned performance venue. Here’s a link from someone who was unhappy with their inability to put you in the seat for which you paid.

A lovely gift to the People of Del Rio:

From a walking-tour page I'll link to next week:

This was built in 1929 by Max Stool for Montgomery Ward as that mail-order business expanded into storefront businesses. The icon near the roofline is a Ward’s symbol called the "Spirit of Progress." Ward’s moved out in the 1950s, and the building has been occupied by various department and clothing stores.

I'll bet there were others around the country.

The sign was put up for a more prosperous clientele.

A previous street view: Tiffany it ain’t.

“Del Rio has been a proud Texas Main Street City since 2002, actively supporting expansion of the downtown economic base by assisting in recruiting more businesses to downtown, advertising available properties in the district, assisting with historic preservation efforts and streetscape improvements.”