Driving up Main Strreet, you soon pass the town's crown jewel, the Moyer house, built in the 1880s.  The local historical museum offers a tour of the town that includes a visit to this elegant old home.

Main Street still looks much like one imagines it might have in the early 1900s.  Small shops line both sides of the street and the sidewalks are dotted with many benches, where locals take the time to sit and visit with each other.  As a destination, old town Brownsville seems to have managed to preserve its past without becoming a stereotypical tourist town in the process--a noteworthy achievement. 

Pillowed brickwork on the outside of the auto parts store.  I know what this style is called in Spanish, but since all my architectural background comes from classes I took in Spain, I have no vocabulary at all in English when it comes to these things...  which is another story for another time.  :-)

Old town Brownsville is filled with houses like these: picket fences, gardens bursting with flowers and fruit trees, and porches, none of which seemed empty.  Every porch I saw had several chairs on it, an indicator that people actually sit out and enjoy a chat with passing neighbors.

This stern wooden pioneer couple stands beside an art gallery.

On the side of a Main Street building, an old Coca Cola sign from the 1950s has been recolored.  'The pause that refreshes' reads the ad, a slogan I remember well from my childhood.

This window in the Linn County museum building takes you back to another era.