About Town

This week's photos from around Columbia...

 The mural at Eastern Drillers along Front Street is shaping up.

 Teamwork - 

It looks as if the artwork will be illuminated.

 Talking it over.

Portrait of the artist taking a photo of his art - 

Cesar Viveros is the artist. The backstory of the mural is HERE.

More on Columbia's murals is HERE and further down on this page.

*******

 Possessed!

All cats are possessed by the devil.

Anyone who has ever owned one knows this to be true.

Fortunately, a heavenly light shines eternally over our humble hamlet to ward off all evil.

Junior stockbroker?

 Columbia and Wrightsville

 Datestone on the 500 block of Locust

And another one at the old chip factory

 "Runnin' from the risin' heat to find a place to hide."

(At 5th and Locust)

 A reminder

 Staring through a snooted-up window of his own making

 Sprucing up at CBFD

 Don't go there.

 Rolling along

 Setting up a traffic counter?

*******

The highway department has been busy of late. More lights are being installed at Locust Street Park.

 Here's a base-to-be.

 Several are being installed along the walkway.

 Meanwhile on Ironville Pike

The highway department is digging the driveway.

*******

 Men at work at 5th and Walnut

 Ditto

 No, it's not a photo from World War II. It's the 500 block of Walnut (looking west).

This is a view from the other end.

Kids find the trench an intriguing place to play.

No worries here

*******

 Norwood, former home of Columbia artist and poet Lloyd Mifflin

 Here's one of the fence "pillars."

And a close-up of an embedded medallion. The engraving looks to be in Latin. "Sculpsit" is sometimes used in conjunction with a stone carver's or engraver's name.

 "NORWOOD" is carved into the stone.

 Another view of Norwood

 Another

And another

*******

 The steps at Columbia Crossing were recently recoated.

 NO ENTRY

 Looks like the sidewalk was done, too.

Columbia Crossing was at one time projected to be a "maintenance-free" building.

*******

 Murals? We got 'em. Here's another one (or several) inside the laundromat at 6th and Walnut.

Done by Columbia artist Mark Kise in 2006. He also painted the portrait of Lloyd Mifflin on the back wall of the Foresters, next to the Columbia Historic Preservation Society.

*******

 Roman arches, finite regression

 Definitely looks portable.

 Beating the heat

The Columbia Plaza parking lot appears to have sprung another leak.

*******

New codes trucks. Supposedly, trucks were preferred over cars so that items could be hauled when necessary.

 But the bed of each truck is clean as a hound's tooth, if you don't count a stray leaf or two.

Must not have been much to haul.

There's a couple of codes guys now.

*******

 Reach out and touch someone.

 No parking along the yellow line!

  A historic building going to crap?

Poor choice of parking - right along the highway, at the corner of 5th and Chestnut

Still there

(See the previous two weeks' installments of "About Town.")

Pipeline workers milkin' it. The boss must not be around.

*******

 Friday's heavy rains caused road closures, which caused traffic headaches. The driver in the black car shown above laid on his horn for 10-15 seconds straight and then kept beeping it until he was able to edge his way into traffic.

 Here's what it looked like just off 11th and Ridge on Friday afternoon.

 Down at 2nd and Chestnut, traffic was tied up in several directions due to closure of the westbound lanes of the the Route 30 (Wrights Ferry) Bridge and the Veterans Memorial Bridge.

 Traffic was backed up on Chestnut Street from 2nd Street to 6th Street

 5th and Chestnut

Near the entrance to the Veterans Memorial Bridge, with westbound lane closed.

 This submitted photo and the one below show a retention basin along Cloverton Drive, after Friday's rain (above) and before (below).

*******

Here are two submitted photos (above and below) from another reader showing a vehicle being worked on at the new Commerce Street parking lot. Borough ordinance says working on cars on a public street is illegal. But is a parking lot a street? The mystery remains.

*******

Another reader submitted the following photos of old Columbia...

 The former Hotel Bitner at 4th and Walnut in 1934

 Former building at 4th and Chestnut

There's a garage there now.

 Bank's Bros. 5 & 10¢ Department Store at Market Street and Locust

 The Opera House at 3rd and Locust in 1913

 Woolworth's Sore, early 1900s, which later became the Masonic Center and is now...apartments?

 Harry Zeamer's Drugs & Desher Brothers Store, 200 block of Locust Street

 3rd and Locust (looking west), 1888

 Steamboat Helen on the Susquehanna River

 Old Home Week, Locust Street (looking east), 1913

Zeamer's Drug Store

Second floor - Moose Home

Another reader submitted this photo of one of several bridges that spanned the Susquehanna from Columbia to Wrightsville - 

The caption reads: "Columbia Pa.  Bridge destroyed by Cyclone Sept. 29, 1896."

And since red means STOP, this is the end of this week's "About Town."