Posted 7/16/2004 06:32:00 PM by Douglas

Does anyone rejoice after reading the headline, " Domed landmark to be parking lot"?? I don't think so, but in this case, it may just be inevitable.

Most recently, the structure served as a bar called The Smithzonian. Before that it was a gay bar called Bubba's. And many people recall eating there with their families decades ago when it was a Mexican food restaurant called El Palacio.

Well if a gay bar can't make it in Amarillo, Texas, then really, the building has no hope. Sad really, when you consider how much dignity it started with.

Robert W. Bauman, 75, said his father, the late Rudy Bauman, operated Air Speed Service Station there from about 1939 to 1943. And he said he recalled that it had existed as a service station before that.

"At the time, it was quite a piece because it has that dome ceiling," Bauman said. "And why anyone would go to that expense, I don't know. It's not easy to do. But for a filling station, that's quite a deal.

"You'd say, 'We're in that filling station - the one with the domed ceiling."' The dome was painted gold then, he said.

"The family didn't particularly like the gay bar part, but we never did make an issue about it," said Jim Mullane Sr., 59, son of Naomi and P.H. Mullane.

Well, what are ya gonna do? It's just not worth the money, is it?

The building has a value of $53,000, but structural damage requires repairs that would exceed $20,000, city planners say. It will require an asbestos abatement before it can be destroyed.

Figure in the fact that no one wants it, and the damages that are almost 40% of its value, well, you don't have to be a CPA to figure this one out. It's still kinda sad, in a way. You can't help but look at the pictures and think of the wide-eyed entrepreneur in 1939 that was going to get rich selling gas and tires. But then again, you've got today's reality.

"I'm glad to see the church get it," said the elder Jim Mullane. "You hate to see the building go. But since my folks aren't there, you know, they're in our hearts, so that doesn't really matter now."

Amen to that, brother. Sometimes a picture is better than a landmark. If not for progress (whatever that is), we'd be squatting in a cave in Europe, praying to the harvest god we don't get dysentery this summer. But still, it's a beautiful building, and it's sad that it's going to be a church parking lot now: