These photos look northeast across the intersection of Houser Way South (railroad track) and Wells Avenue South. The main building is one I call the coffee/ice cream shop building---there used to be such a shop in the corner space. The milk shakes there were delicious! That shop went out of business and I miss it. Note the boarded-up windows.

When I took the upper picture in 2004, the coffee shop had closed, the white building to the right housed Pickering's Appliances, and the dark red building at far right housed Armondo's Italian Restaurant. Pickering’s was a local outfit where my wife and I bought a stove, dishwasher, clothes washer, and a clothes dryer. Later it got bought by Albert Lee Appliances and the store was closed. When I worked in Renton, I had many a lunch at Armando's.

If I remember correctly, Armondo Pavone, owner of his namesake restaurant, owned the entire block. As part of a downtown revitalization effort, he remodeled much or all of it in 2005, improving the buildings. Following the remodeling, he moved his restaurant from the dark red building to this one, occupying about half of the block on the ground floor. A cheese cake company moved into the space he vacated. A bicycle shop and a glass trinket shop moved into the old Pickering’s space. There were other changes I can’t remember.

The relocated Armondo’s restaurant operated until June 19, 2011, then closed after serving Renton for 25 years. In 2013 the space was occupied by Ristorante Marianna. The bicycle shop has moved a block away. The cheese cake company moved out. An unrelated change was the rebuilding, in 2007, of the BNSF Railway line running through Renton.

Cultural notes: the red curb denotes a "fire lane"; no parking is allowed there. The white "L" in the foreground marks the corner of a parking space.

Combination photo made with PhotoScape.