At home, I’ve given up a car, so Texas is my time for driving. This is Weslaco (W.E. Stewart Land Company) with one of the Valley's better main streets.
In the Thirties, as below at the Hotel Cortez, it bustled, but now the sidewalks and delightful buildings would benefit from more than just a few lonely pedestrians.
From the Thirties until well into the Fifties, the Keno Cafe - its curved counter complementing the deco exterior - had a certain style. Now, it’s a friendly Mexican restaurant, a bit down-at-heels.
Wonderful buildings molder. This is in Edinburg ...
... as is this crenelated, now empty, county 'restitution' (!) center. Texas restitution centers were what seems to have been a largely failed effort to make people pay fines or compensate victims. Offenders would spend nights and weekends in a low security jail - debtors' prison of a kind - until they came up with the money.
In run-down Progreso, this Spanish Revival building is boarded up.
San Ygnacio, way up the Valley towards Laredo. Hardly another soul.
Well, there’s a dog.
An abandoned hotel's sign in Mercedes reminds the few passersby that air conditioning - in the often stiflingly hot Valley - was once novel.
Some relics live on. A drive-in theatre (note the spelling, unusual in the States), one of the few, still brings 'em in. Five dollars mid-week, ten on the weekend and that’s for as many as can get in a car.
McAllen's Cine El Rey deco-ish exterior has been one of my favourites since first coming here. In the lobby is a rusty, mechanical candy machine, possibly dating from the opening in 1947. The cinema has comfy sofas and often shows free films with complimentary popcorn.
