35 years ago, Ellensburg's downtown was added to the National Register of Historic Places, thus recognizing its worthiness of preservation. Downtown Ellensburg looks like most Western railroad towns; a few blocks of red brick building that are 2 or 3 stories high. When I moved to Ellensburg, the building housed actual business and a couple antique stores. Now days its mostly Antique stores and tattoo parlors. This is a result of changing tastes with regards to body art and increased pressure on small business by big or bigger box retailers. In Ellensburg's case it is from Fred Meyer and whereas the presence of the big box neighbor didn't help the small businesses, it did show off the dysfunctional nature of the Ellensburg business district. The reality was that the landlords charges too much rent and business owners had become complacent as well, providing only limited choices. The consumer had to purchase what was sold in town or go to Yakima or over the hill to Seattle, for real choice of goods. The result was the old guard sold out or shuttered their stores. This has all led to a downtown that is more geared to not the locals and families with streets named for them, but to the college student (which was not catered to in my time there) and the students turned residents.
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