From the archive - Postcard Past / Present Photo

Merged image of the 1942 postcard and 2022 photo

Mar 31, 2025 California From the archive

Maryland Hotel / Warwick Hotel, San Francisco

A tidy Beaux Arts hotel designed by Righetti & Headman on the edge of the Tenderloin, the Maryland Hotel was built in 1912 and followed an extremely typical trajectory for a San Francisco residential hotel.

Merged image of the postcard and the photo

Mar 6, 2025 NYC New York From the archive

Church Center for the United Nations, New York

The Church Center for the United Nations doesn’t exactly live up to its vibrant portrayal in this postcard, but the modernist chapel here is neat. Designed by William Lescaze, the United Methodist Church intended the Church Center to be a interfaith religious mission to the UN.

Merged image of the 2022 photo with the postcard

Feb 24, 2025 Chicago Illinois From the archive

Polish National Alliance HQ / Studio Gang Architects, Chicago

Once the HQ of one of the most influential ethnic fraternal organizations in the US and now home to one of Chicago’s most famous architecture firms in Studio Gang, the old Polish National Alliance HQ is a dignified bit of Depression Deco.

Merged image with the photo on the left and the postcard image on the right.

Feb 18, 2025 Chicago Illinois From the archive

Outer Drive Bridge and MS Chicago Tribune, Chicago

There’s so much here I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll start with... ...the boat?

Jan 13, 2025 Buffalo New York From the archive

Buffalo Savings Bank

The Buffalo Savings Bank renamed itself Goldome in an ill-fated 1980s rebrand, but it turns out that its eye-catching gilded dome was originally…copper?