Then and Now: Fall River

This one is almost too much to believe. And not for the normal reasons of becoming abandoned. Fall River, Mass, is still doing OK, I think. But not what used to be the heart of downtown.

And now.

It doesn’t look like the same place. But it is.

Where’s that beautiful building on the right I take to be City Hall? Those things usually last. Not in Fall River. Look at what I assume is the new City Hall.

Grim. Brutalist and grim. Vintage 1975, I’m guessing.

Why were those beautiful buildings torn down, including the whole block on the left? To build a road, naturally. A freeway now runs under there.

Such is progress. And you can’t stop progress. But of course you could stop dumb destruction.

As always, the old picture is from Shorpy.