Back-alley brickwork

When I went out to see Dad I told him that we would have to meander through the alleyways of a nearby city. I recommended Fort Smith, as their historic downtown is currently being renovated, but Dad had a different idea. He recommended that we go to historic Van Buren. I was thrilled by the amount of crumbling brickwork that was waiting for us in the alleys:

 

And crumbling plaster, showing the brick below:

 

We even saw where it looked like a whole wall had crumbled, leaving only a fragment behind next to a beautiful spiral staircase:

 

We caught sight of an old Anheuser-Busch building, whose green trim accentuated the red brick beautifully:

 

There was a brick opera house:

 

There were bits of painted brick:

 

And bits of brand new brickwork, in the case of this patio area behind the Cajun's Backdoor restaurant:

 

And the coup de grace was the old brick Citizen Bank building, which screamed for a little HDR treatment:

 

I had a great time exploring the bricks of Van Buren with Dad!