Friday I had most of the day off, so I went for a drive up the Michigan Road. I’d heard that a new streetscape was being built in tiny Kirklin, so I stopped to see the progress.
The new sidewalks even extend around the corners, for about a block.
When I first visited Kirklin, while surveying the Michigan Road in 2008, several shop owners stopped me to find out why I was photographing their town. When I explained, they all lamented that despite being only about 45 minutes north of Indianapolis, they seldom got visitors from there, and they were all barely getting by in their shops.
Many of Kirklin’s builidngs were in dilapidated condition then. In the intervening years, many have been renovated and filled with antique and arty-crafty shops. Most of them are open only on the weekends. But there’s critical mass in Kirklin now, where there wasn’t in 2008. It’s worth the Saturday or Sunday drive to spend a couple hours looking through these shops and perhaps getting a bite in one of the restaurants.
The new streetscape will only enhance Kirklin’s appeal. Bravo to them.
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