WAC Expansion officially underway.

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I miss the wandering tribes of hippies the place had back in the day. That having been said Dickson street is where all the action is.

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That period from about 1986-1996 on Dickson and Fayetteville was pretty magical. Punks, hippies, freaks, rainbows, trustafarians and with the Library Club/ Chesters, Studio 616, George's, River City, etc... anchoring it all down.

I mean, the cool thing is that all of the scenesters from those days are all older and raising kids of their own and owning businesses all over town. So that's pretty cool, but I miss those days (I guess I'm really saying I miss my youth, hah).

Dickson was just part of town in the 60s. Think of it as being more like what College Ave is today. Businesses, gas stations, laundry, bakery, etc.

In the 1980s was when Dickson was at it's roughest. The WAC opened in 1992, and it was still pretty rough around the edges at that point, but gentrification seeds had been set in place.

The mid to late 1990s was when it really started happening in full-swing. Parts of The Bakery Building and a few others down there were boarded up and dis-used. Can't imagine that being the case now, but there were actual boarded up buildings. The bakery made the whole street smell like fresh-baked bread.

I remember when Three-sisters was going up. That was the beginning of the end for the hippie herds and the official entry of high dollar.

College students used to actually frequent bars in other parts of town, like College Ave. Can you imagine? Dance halls and College kids drinking in as high of numbers on College Ave as they did on Dickson. My Pleasure, LJ's and Doc Murdock's were all college party hangouts. It was in the late 90s to early 2000s that Dickson finally again became the primary realm of college students.

I am very happy to see this happening. This facade is a major upgrade over the current exterior. If you're going modern, work the tall glass, I like it.

Vertical is what I like to see happening in and around Dickson St. Block St. has the most future potential in my opinion.

I haven't driven by it in a week or so but I don't think it'll be open by the 1st unless they hauled arse on it. It does look almost done though. They finished the sidewalk on razorback by the gardens finally. I imagine next summer they'll do the rest of it all the way up.

On a side -- but somewhat related -- note, I ran across this story on Facebook from the Fayetteville Flyer. Looks like a photographer found some old pics he took of the Fayetteville farmer's market from 40 years ago when he was a student. Pretty cool look at the old Fayetteville square:

LINK