The Old Library #WordlessWednesday

I worked in downtown Binghamton, New York, a city of about 47,000 people in the Southern Tier of New York State, for over 20 years.

On March 19, 2020, I was sent home to work, with not much warning.  Sunday, I visited downtown Binghamton for only the second time since March 19.

I walked past the old Carnegie Library, built in 1903, opened in 1904 and occupied as a library until the building closed in 2000.

In the past several years, it was renovated.  It was supposed to become a culinary school, part of our local community college.  Well, guess what.  Along came Corona.

Now, on a Sunday morning, it looks so peaceful.  It makes me wonder:  what has this building seen in its lifetime?  Buildings can't be alive, can they?

But then I got to thinking.  If it is alive; This isn't the first pandemic this building has seen.  The building to its left was  built in 1904.  There is a courthouse across the street from these buildings that was built in 1897.

These buildings all were occupied in 1917-1921, the official time span of a horrific flu epidemic that may have caused the deaths of some 50 million people.  What did the people in these buildings do?  How were their lives disrupted?

Finally, how did they return to normal?

There's an expression "What was old is new again".

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Also joining Natasha and Esha at #WordlessWednesday.