Sutherland Cleaners in downtown Kalispell was one of my favorite mid-century modern buildings in Montana when I surveyed the town in 2013.

There was the funky angled shed roof, with oh so prominent brackets, painted green. The name Sutherland in script was so 1950s. The concrete block screen and canopy setting off the entrance was cool. And the two-tone red and green color scheme gave a certain identity to what was actually little more than a functional concrete block building.

Ten years later the building still stands—thankful for that—but the entrance screen and wrap around canopy are gone. Colors are still two-tone but so close in color that the brackets get lost.

An era has passed, I understand. But what had been a vibrant historic building is now just an old remodeled place. Again I’m grateful that the building has a second life of service but boy do I miss the funkiness.