Exploring Alva

Trip Start Jun 01, 2009

Trip End Oct 16, 2009

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Flag of United States Alva, Oklahoma
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Don and I decided to do some exploring this evening and headed downtown to get beyond the highway strip where we are located. Alva has been a very prosperous town at one time with significant brick buildings and a very large town square that today holds the Centennial Park and municipal building, fire equipment garage and police station. At some point, the economy of Alva declined (I'm doing some research) and the town is now a shelll of itself. We are definitely getting the feeling that the arrival of the harvest crews is a major event for the town. It certainly boost the economy! While there may not be quite as many vacant buildings as in some other midwest towns, the ones still in business appear to be staying in business on a slim margin. We walked around the square in the early evening and may have seen a total of six people over a period of an hour. From what I can gather, the elevators are the mainstay of the local economy.

The streets are wide with angle parking and the sidewalks are shaded by closely planted trees trimmed to provide maximum protection for the pedestrian. Several places provide benches where one can pause. There seems to be one drugstore, a hardware store, a singer sewing centre, a couple of 'watering holes', a couple of investment/insurance firms, a couple of real estate offices, and a few technically focused businesses - surveying, building etc. There have been many more once upon a time!

There has been a concerted effort to spruce up the downtown, probably using money allocated for centennial events. A wonderful display of murals have been painted on brick walls throughout the town, some of which I have captured for the blog.

Neither Don or I know much about the american mid-west so I am definitely relaying first impressions.

Slideshow

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Centennial Courtyard	Oklahoma Centennial Mural	Runnimede was Dale's Dream Sculpture	Runnimede - A Downtown Meeting Place
Steet facing the Town Square	Shaded Street and benches for hot summer days	Looking out for the Pedestrian	Where is everyone?
Looking Toward the Elevator	The Local Theatre	Looking up the street Towards the Co-op	Window Posters in Co-op Building
Looking for Work	More Window 'Art'	This building is painted to use the texture	Harvest Time
Corner of the Town Square	House Call	The Run	Alva Speedway
Turkey Springs	The Local Lumber Yard - formerly Starr Lumber	Starr Lumber	The Train Depot