I almost fell on my knees and cried when I saw THIS.

That's right: They're actual windows, breaking the "golden era," straight-out-of-Ceausescu's-Bucharest brickwork monotony of the former Mutual Trust Bank building.

Bless Matt Chalfant.

Forget mayor.

Make him procurator, immediately.

The online.com/40020cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks">Indiana History Room Archive provides glimpses of what this building has been over the years. First, circa 1931, looking north. The bank is to the right, and was a bit kitschy, even then.

Then, during the 1937 flood. Notice the smaller building in the center, temporarily submerged, and soon to be subsumed.

Roughly 1961. The bank has a new facade, and has stretched to the south in its present-day configuration. The little building is gone. Maybe part of it is still back there, somewhere.

Finally, a cringe-worthy sketch of the late 1960s Soviet bloc bunker chic refit. We all know too well how that turned out.

Blech.

Did I mention the blessed reappearance of windows?

Here are two views of the Bank Street side, where the triumphal arch has been mercifully removed. First, new stairs in the defile between the former bank and Kaiser Tobacco; then, the interior space where Habana Blues will relocate.

As I was on my knees today, sobbing, I noticed a big crowd at Endris Jewelers for the business closing sale.

Trust me. Endris was wall-to-wall all day.

Whether Bob "My One Way Is the Highway and Therefore the Only True Way" Caesar serves another term on the city council, and irrespective of City Hall's ability to implement Jeff Speck's walkability suggestions (the confidence indice is plunging with each day that passes without an unemployed John Rosenbarger), probably this section of Pearl Street will revert to two-way traffic.

If the experience in other cities is reliable, when it does, business will be better for all merchants.

Bob will have missed it, and that's a shame.