After decades of neglect, Burt street, the main street of Historic
Boulder, is undergoing major development. Once-upon-a-time as
courageous pedestrians ventured along, they would be greeted with
broken windows, chronic dilapidation, and be accosted by destitute and
inebriated beggars soliciting for money. Now, stroll the pavement at
the top end and you pass through tunnels of scaffolding. There is all
sorts of construction work happening to buildings everywhere you look.
Sheets of plywood hoarding are concealing businesses where
refurbishments are under way. These stores are still operating, but to
visit
them you pass through the human equivalent of a mouse hole.
Shops are having new fronts fitted. Fancy upgrades of all sorts to make them look spic & span and like yesteryear. Old brickwork is being spruced up. Masonry moldings are being worked on. Forgotten facades of ages past are being re-created. The place is a hive of activity; like something out of Snow White and the 700 dwarfs. Some enthusiastic shop keepers are outdoing themselves, by installing ornate wooden doors, with lead-light glass inserts and polished brass fittings. The guy who fixes washing machines has put ancient appliances in his window: several precursors to the modern day refrigerator, a clothes washer from circa 1920, and a tin bathtub that someone's great-grandmother would have bathed in. The future is on the up and up. Who knows where it will end. Do the shopkeepers intend to serve customers in period costume? Who knows. But what is known, is that a once rundown ghost town is being brought back to life.
Copyright © 2014 Eamonn Gosney — All Rights Reserved
Shops are having new fronts fitted. Fancy upgrades of all sorts to make them look spic & span and like yesteryear. Old brickwork is being spruced up. Masonry moldings are being worked on. Forgotten facades of ages past are being re-created. The place is a hive of activity; like something out of Snow White and the 700 dwarfs. Some enthusiastic shop keepers are outdoing themselves, by installing ornate wooden doors, with lead-light glass inserts and polished brass fittings. The guy who fixes washing machines has put ancient appliances in his window: several precursors to the modern day refrigerator, a clothes washer from circa 1920, and a tin bathtub that someone's great-grandmother would have bathed in. The future is on the up and up. Who knows where it will end. Do the shopkeepers intend to serve customers in period costume? Who knows. But what is known, is that a once rundown ghost town is being brought back to life.
Copyright © 2014 Eamonn Gosney — All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment