mrs. kelley

At the beginning of the project i was told about this lady that has lived her whole life on bonham st. so last week i set out to find and meet this lady. i knocked on her door and there was this sweet lady named margaret kelley. she was born in a house a house on the street and has lived in 5 different houses all on the same street. she is currently 94, born in 1918, and lives alone in the first house on the left. after sitting down and talking with her i have learned much more than doing any type of research. I have asked her numerous questions dealing with her opinion on what the town of commerce once was and what is has become. She informed me that it has always been a college town in her sight, which surprised me because i only viewed it as becoming a college town in the last century or two. I gained a lot of insight after talking to her and her words really encouraged me to continue with the project. In the beginning i viewed the project as i wanted to show how sad and uninviting the town has become but her words proved me wrong. she stated in many different answers that, yes downtown has closed a lot of businesses but that doesn't mean the town is unsuccessful it just means the all the stores have moved towards the highways and university. so all along i feel like i've set out with the wrong intentions, i know see that there are successful businesses in commerce they are just no longer in downtown. the next step in this project is to start photographing where the businesses have moved and are growing. i want to compare the old downtown photos to current ones with the closed signs but i also want to include where the business have moved.

i've started contacting people about a gallery space. my first option is to go with the oldest building in commerce. i've contacted the owners and just waiting on a response back. my 2nd option is to go with the old telephone building. i have the contact info but i'm waiting to hear back from the 1st people. i also have the owner info for another vacant building downtown located on the corner of alamo and washington.

interesting side note number 1: there once were KKK march's around the square in commerce.