Quick! Before you read! Where could I find an owl downtown?

Former YMCA: Crown Court Condos

Here is another of those little things that are easy to pass by without tuning in. Several things make this little oddity easy to miss: It's on Locust Street, which isn't the most heavily traveled street downtown. It's also four stories in the air, so if you are watching the sidewalk for loose change you don't have a chance of catching it.

The old YMCA building has been subdivided into an excellent fitness center in the form of the Lindsey-Young Downtown YMCA located on the backside of the building and Crown Court Condos located on the front. It was updated in the last few years and is an excellent, modern facility.

The top floor of the Crown Court portion features a balcony on the east and south sides. I'm not sure if it is a balcony that is accessible from the condos. I've never seen anyone on them. Apparently, however, there must be a problem with the ease of access for pigeons or other winged pests because there are two very large owls located in one of the balconies. They don't look friendly. One is facing out, while one is facing the other owl. I wonder if it works? Then again, I'm making some assumptions, here. Maybe the residents just like owls. Next time you pass by you may want to take a look. I took these photographs from the Locust Street Garage looking directly across the street at the YMCA Building.

After you check this one out, look for another one downtown. There is at least one. Can you be the first to find it?

It's Still not a Golden Arch, but it is a Mystery Solved!

You may have read my blog from July 27 regarding the mystery of the origin of the arch in the picture above. As the title to the post indicated, I suspected it was a  case for Ask Doc Knox. Well, my faith was well founded. The mystery has been solved by the all-knowing one. If you didn't read the original post, go to the link above and read it before you read any further.

I'm waiting for the new readers to return. . .

Now I'm going to give you a choice. If you want the full and eloquent version of the answer before I ruin it for you click here. If you want my watered down version, keep reading. This is a spoiler alert. You have read the original post, right?

Still with me? OK, the building at 2 Market Square was probably built in the 1880's. It was never considered a remarkable building and was eventually covered over in the 1950's to make it look "modern." After the covering was removed and the "Mall" era was in swing for Market Square, an architect suggested many ideas to make the building more interesting. The arch was the only one the owner would allow. It was added in the 1980's.

So now we know. We've solved the mystery of the Blackberry Car and the TreeGator and now the lonely arch. What other mysteries lurk downtown that beg for our attention?

Reflections

I love the song "Reflections of My Life" by Marmalade. It is definitely a must-have for any decent itunes collection. So what does this have to do with the city? Nothing, except that I've noticed some very cool reflections in our buildings, lately. I'll save my favorite and start with the reflection of First Bank in one of the Butcher Buildings. I happened upon it as I walked up Clinch across the viaduct between State Street and Gay Street just a bit before noon early in July. Click it to enlarge it and get a  closer look.

The other reflection is pretty amazing to see in person, but I'm not sure the pictures really capture it. It is a reflection of the Medical Arts Building as you walk up Locust toward Main just after 8:00 AM. The building in which it is reflected is the Bank of America building, which has a curved surface, which I assume accounts for the stunning deconstruction of the reflection. I hope you enjoy it. I can't decide which picture is best, so I'm posting them all. Are there other reflections you've noticed? Let me know and I'll try to get a picture to post.

Things that make you go, well, to the Internet to try to figure it out

We had fun with the Blackberry car mystery. It's time for another round of "who knows what in the world this is about?" It looks like a life preserver around the base of a tree, but as far as I can tell the tree isn't adrift. In fact, it looks just like all the other trees in the row of trees - and they don't have any visible support. The row of trees are not recently planted and the device wasn't employed until recently. It looks like it may be filled with water or some other liquid. I was hesitant to prod it to be certain. I believe it's been around the base of more than one of the trees in that section of Union Avenue by Market Street, but I'm not sure. Remember, you can click the images to get a larger view. What do you think? I'll give a shout out to the detective who breaks the case. Happy sleuthing.

Tuesday Afternoon, Part Three, (AKA: The Blackberry Car)

Yet another reason to love downtown: You never know what you might find. Walking on Union Street in front of Pete's (go to Petes, you'll love the breakfast and the ambience) I found this car.

What you might ask is covering this car? Could it be bird droppings? Could it be something from the tree under which it is parked? Have a closer look:

Or even closer:

That's right: It is blackberries! Hundreds of fresh, juicy, absolutely ruining the paint job, blackberries. Why? Revenge? It seems possible, but who would think of buying this many blackberries to cover a car when you can just "Bust the Windows Out Your Car?" I must say I failed as a young blogger. I waited for an hour to talk to the owner of the car, but got hungry and left my post. I left a note begging for a phone call and an answer, but I got nothing. Anybody out there know anything?

PS. If you like what I'm doing here, subscribe above, leave a comment, tell somebody. The world needs to know the hard-hitting facts about blackberry cars!