Its wiki starts: "Plainview began when Z. T. Maxwell and Edwin Lowden Lowe established a post office in March 18, 1887. The town received its name due to the vast treeless plain surrounding it."

I imagine they had a good reason for establishing a post office. Or perhaps they just stopped because the horses were tired, and said "You know, this would be a nice place to get a letter."

Twenty-thousand souls. Will it be a charming quiet slumbering hamlet, or some place that looks scoured and hollow?

This looks like an AI drawing, completely with garbled not-English text:

An old store, obviously. I love the second-floor office, or lookout, or whatever it was. Absolutely severe and unadorned.

It makes me sad, too. For all sorts of reasons.

Uh oh.

You get the feeling that the whole town had a going out of business sale about 30 years ago. Moving along . . .

Stores like this indicate there was prosperity once, right? Those nice big display windows on the side, full of . . . hats? Shoes?

Possible Woolworth's.

Annnnnd WHOA

Housing now, of course. Originally a Hilton!

The project is the fifth Hilton Hotel built by Conrad Hilton in the United States, and opened in 1929. The premiere hotel for its day—it was located by a Greyhound bus station—featured a store where travelers could purchase knick-knacks and souvenirs, a ballroom for events, and a private club.

The hotel continued to be open until the 1970s and then sat abandoned for more than 30 years.

More at the link, including pictures.

Again, I’m not sure what AI would have done differently.

What's in there? There has to be something in there.

The rare chameleon building, which responds to the cars parked in front

Hotel or office?

I’m going with the latter.

It looks mothballed, or . . .

. . . or home to something secretive the windows cannot reveal.

This modern motel must have been the reason I visited this town.

I don't know what "plaza" is supposed to connote here. And "Inn" seems a bit much. You're a motel. Embrace it.

The Cinematreasures page says it has a lot of windows for a movie theater, and they have a point.

Perhaps that was an upstairs lobby? Or offices.

I think we have the answer to the question posed at the beginning - charming slumbering hamlet, or scoured and hollow? - unless I was being really selective when I took the screen grabs/

It looks as if the windows were always bricked up thus.

No doubt about its purpose, of course, but a bit of a mystery: why the black patch on the cornice?

Here’s the bushel under which you’re not supposed to hide your light

Rather underwhelming courthouse. Seems ashamed to admit it has a dome.

“We came in $1500 under budget, boss. You want the money back, or you want some pointless ornamentation?”

I think I’m done.

I love the lettering for PLAINVIEW.

Could it all come back? Sure. Will it? Your answer to that says a lot about how you see the country today. How, and why.