ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
"Clutter and mess bring a lot of vitality to a city street. Vivid bold signs, each trying to be bigger and louder than the next, announce that things are happening here.

But at what point does vitality turn into chaos? It’s hard to say. In the view of Washington Street in the older photo, department store and movie signs pretty much block out any view of the architecture, reducing it to background. The architecture – facades of marvelous old theate...