Todays road trip through the country takes us to the town of Urbana, county seat of Champaign County. Full disclosure – some of the photos are likely from border counties as I was on country roads without county line markers.
Each little town seemed to have a commercial block of 100 year old buildings, this one with a restored clock tower.
Talk about a barn find for the Ohio countryside – an old Mercedes with late 1980s license plates!
An abandoned school in a crossroads town.
This stylish little building was in the small town of Mechanicsburg.
Normally ‘Quilt Barns’ are much larger than this, but the contrast of the farm implements added to the look of this one.
Not too many farms date from 1814 in Ohio.
Eventually I reached the town of Urbana. As with most county seats it seemed to have the best collection of buildings in the area. Some nicely restored, some not so much, it was worth the stop.
The Hotel Sowles dates from around 1800, it is said to have hosted every Ohio governor from the beginning of the state until 1900. A community effort resulted in this great old building being restored.
This former bank in an Art Deco look is now a law office.
The Perpetual Federal Savings and Loan has been located in Urbana for 140 years. The building is generally designed in a Roman Corinthian style, but with classical touches. A true midwest building it is built out of Minnesota granite and Indiana limestone situated in a small Ohio town.
Personally I think the Yellow Mini sets it off nicely.
This classic Gulf Gas Station from the 1970s is still in use as an auto repair shop.
The local airport is home to a small museum where they are restoring a B-17.
This small theater started life in 1904, However in the 1930s it was destroyed in a fire, and was rebuilt in 1941 – hence the Art Deco look.
It is currently undergoing restoration.
Urbana has a number of great ghost signs.
This vacant, decaying building once housed a company that provided galvanized iron for railroad use.
Just across the street is the former train station, now a coffee shop. This station served the Pennsylvania Railroad for many decades.
Our time in Urbana is over, time to move on.
RDZ Photography 