By golly Mr. Dillon

A bank denuded, or was it always this plain?

“That man who came through town a year back, I tell you, could he sell paint.”

“Only had one color but me made it seem like the best color in the world.”

There’s a sturdy, attractive, confident quality in a dark red brick building that’s been upgraded with black.

What did someone just teleport in from England

If I had to bet money, I’d say the ground floor was originally shops, and the windows came later.

At least they had the decency to match them with the upper floor, although the general effect is odd.

“Then another fellow came along, heard we liked painting our buildings, and turns out he had a color of his own. Musta sold a thousand gallons.”

“Old Horace wouldn’t talk to him, though. Slammed the door in his face. Hung up when he called.”

“Then the first guy who sold us the beige came back, and now he was in the siding line.”

“But he ended up dead in his hotel room, no one quite knows how. Anyway, a few weeks later, the feller shows up with a sample case full of modern bricks.”

“Turned out, though, the siding guy had a brother. Came ‘round looking for the man who killed his brother, so he said, and also had some pretty new ideas as well.”

The fellow with the rocks was still doing the territory, but when he came back, he got to know the siding guy’s brother, and I guess they started doing drugs together.”

“The Siding Guy decided to sell his brother’s paint to honor his memory. He also started wearing buckskins and leather vests and a gunbelt; the boy had problems.”

“He also volunteered as a fireman, but they really didn’t send him out on any jobs.”

Okay, I can’t keep this up. Don’t know how the story would fit this. Maybe "consanguinity led to a horrible defect."

Hmm. Three eras? Mid-century probably / possibly pre-war for ground floor, post-war for middle.

Your Google Street View Moment

Okay then

Yikes.

The opposite of the Frog Building: a barren bleached street with 40s / early 50s details.

Which I love.

The poor scoured building on the right had a garage door, with the big protuberances intended to take the damage from a car that missed the bay.

Looks odd for a garage.

Whoever they were, they lost.

Okay, here's who they were.

Those fabric-and-frame awnings will not, I think, be well-remembered.