Is it me or is this just... sad.

Is this just sad? Or is it me?

Over 40 years ago, someone boards up a small Ice Cream Shoppe, and walks away. Between now and then it hasn't been opened? Is this evidence of economic malaise? Good manners? Is this town like one of those dying middle American towns where the population drops every year? What kind of town allows a corner shoppe to be boarded up for over 40 years, without someone somewhere in town finding some use for it? Was there a 40 year legal action? Did the owner go missing? Was there some arcane and Gordian title dispute which prevented it from being being used?