Railroad Avenue

Railroad Avenue, running parallel to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul line, angles slightly to the northwest. This required some ingenuity on the part of the architects who built the Opera House Block and the Farmers National Bank (now the Coleman Memorial Museum). If you look closely, you will notice that neither building is perfectly square on the west side. They are built instead to set parallel to Railroad Avenue. The effect is particularly noticeable when looking at the way the addition to the Coleman Museum is situated.

Railroad Avenue was a bustling thoroughfare in the early decades, as wagons and buggies of all types carried passengers and goods to and from the train stations and the merchants that congregated in this part of town.