A classmate suggested I write about the businesses and buildings that are gone or drastically changed over the years. I can do that so long as I write about how the community itself has changed.

New criminal justice facilities in Alamosa are more than essential, though still debated.

As I drive past the new construction at the southwest edge of town, I remember jails that came and went.

The city’s first jail is long gone, as are the subsequent hoosegows. Even the jail built in 1985 is strained to meet current demands and is receiving a welcome new addition.

My dad was the jailer when I was young. The jail sat behind the city hall and fire department. It was adobe, had a few cells and was heated by coal oil. I wasn’t allowed to go in there when there were inmates, so I probably saw it on its best “behavior.”

The county jail was upstairs in the brick courthouse, built with Workers Protection Administration (WPA) funds. That building has become a too-tight shirt, stressed to cover current demands.

As government has matured with the times, the need for more modern space has grown.

The city hall was a municipal courtroom and the sentences were usually short. Inmates worked on the streets in what seems to have been a form of slavery. The high point was when they were taken to the café at the end of the alley for their meals. I don’t believe anyone wanted to be jailed for the food, though.

That restaurant was operated by the legendary Viola Nester, who eventually departed for better money at the Ace Inn. Vi was a legend herself and few people my age can dispute that fact.

Downtown, the buildings are mostly the same, though the businesses have changed. When I was growing up, there were four soda fountains in one block, each part of a larger drugstore.

Four downtown hotels served the traveling public and two more were on the south side, catering to workers in the fields and on the railroad. One of those hotels is gone, two burned and the Walsh and another on Main Street are devoted to food and hospitality.

Just as a parking lot has replaced the city hall, more parking fills the space left behind after the Vic burned.

A parking lot across the street replaced the “Beef’s and Jameel’s buildings.” Montgomery Ward is long gone, leaving an “L” shaped space, so no one can say Alamosa needs spaces to park. A “pocket park” is a welcome break.

There are vacant buildings and an old-timer can walk past and remember what was there. Younger people see them differently.

As I write this, the street in front of my home is being paved. I live at the southernmost south side and can recall when this area was prime for rabbit hunting. I can’t drive up to my own front door for a whole day, but I remember when south side residents had to fight for road grading and street lights.

Progress comes with baby steps.