My folks spent their extended Honeymoon in the Vale Hotel just a couple of years before this photo was taken. They were married on New Years Day 1939 in Boise, and stayed in that hotel for two weeks or so while they waited for their permanent house to be available. They lived in Vale for 15 years.

I look at street-scapes of the past and compared to most exact scenes of today all I can think of how devolved we have become.
The Main Streets used to look so vibrant with activity, signs, flags, stores, and well....life.
Today most places look like ghost towns with a lot of parked cars.

Boy howdy, this would be a great image to colorize! Somebody with more time and skills should take it on, even without any pretty girls in it!

But probably not the Fourth of July, based upon the comparatively placid scene:

What happened to the awning in front of the Coca Cola soda fountain? Maybe the guy walking right in front of the car tried to swing from it after getting kicked out of the Town Tavern? Mr. Whitehat seems to be playing it safe by looking before crossing.

This is actually one block west of Main Street, at the intersection of Court Street and A Street looking east down A Street toward the mountain slope.

[The principal thoroughfare of a town is the main street. Which may or may not be called Main Street. The main street of Vale is A Street. Don't even ask who's on First. - Dave]

However if Main Street is capitalized one can assume that that is the name of the street rather than just the "main street of the town".

[In our photo caption, it's not capitalized. - Dave]