Postcard Past / Present Photo (Page 9)

Merged image of a 1910 postcard of the Jackson Carnegie Library with a 2021 photo

Jan 26, 2024 Michigan

Public Library, Jackson, Michigan

Jackson’s Carnegie Library, a grandiose little Beaux Arts box, always seemed a bit too grandiose for a city of its size. It turns out there’s a unique reason for that, something almost out of a Hallmark movie.

Merged image combining a 2020 photo with a colorful 1943 postcard of a yellow and orange two-story factory

Jan 22, 2024 Chicago Illinois From the archive

Charles Bruning Co., 4700 W. Montrose, Chicago

The building that blueprints built, even more literally than usual–the Charles Bruning Co. manufactured blueprint paper. Designed by Victor L. Charn and nestled between two rail lines, this gorgeous Art Moderne factory opened in 1941.

A merged image of the 1941 postcard of the Hotel Crane and the 2022 photo

Jan 18, 2024 San Francisco California

Hotel Crane, San Francisco

After 75 years as a residential hotel, the Crane's owners tried to force out the tenants, was sued by the city, settled, and have left it vacant ever since—its 110+ units part of the 15,000 SRO units SF lost between 1970 and 2000.

Jan 9, 2024 Chicago Illinois From the archive

The Russian Oil Co., 1128 W. Newport Ave., Chicago

A plucky little survivor from 1894 that outlived the railroad that brought it to life.

Jan 4, 2024 Chicago Illinois From the archive

Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago

Legendary photographer Gordon Parks described Chicago’s Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church as “a temple of hope to thousands of Negro people caught in the backyard of this vast city” when he visited this African American congregation on the city’s Near West Side in 1953.