Pictures of southern skylines back in the day.....

[Fraghawk]

Amarillo's skyline hasn't changed much in the last 20-30 years, but here's a few postcards:

1940-1950s:


Late 70's:


1980s:



This is a picture of the then new Southwest Bank Building, now the Herring Bank Building
It was the 1st tower constructed in Wolfin Village (Amarillo's "uptown"), the other tower is a condo tower the same height.


2000's

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by LSyd

eh, i disagree. anyway...

THIS IS INSANE!!!


http://hydrology.rice.edu/sspeed/ima...tin_1936_2.jpg

-

Heh, ya. Those pictures of all of the old floods of Austin (there is another big one from 1900 that washed away much of the city but I can't find that picture) are all pretty crazy. It was right after that flood in your picture that we started building all the damns. That picture was from the 1935 flood and it was in 1938 that they built the damn to make Lake Travis. There was 22 inches of rain in 3 hours that day. 3,000 homes washed away (and back in the 30's Austin was a small city of only 50,000).

In the 1900 flood, it was from days of rain way up in the Texas Panhandle. Well there was a damn up river and it broke. It sent a 60 foot tall mile wide wall of water into downtown Austin and Bastrop.

[Dallas boi]

Originally Posted by LSyd

eh, i disagree. anyway...

THIS IS INSANE!!!


http://hydrology.rice.edu/sspeed/ima...tin_1936_2.jpg

-

Yeah, Dallas had some pretty big floods too. The biggest flood was in May 1908. That day 15 inches of rain fell. The size of the flood was 2 miles wide and 53 ft deep. This was before the levees were built and before the Trinity River was moved away from downtown, 5 people died and 4,000 homes were lost. There was 2.5 million dollars in damage.

The second highest flood was in May 1990. The damage wasn't as bad as the 1908 flood, because the Trinity River was moved away from downtown and 60 ft levees were built. That day we had two 3-6 inch rainstorms back to back. The river was 47 ft deep, and the river stayed high for 6 weeks. Five of the six food control reservoirs reached record levels.

[Dallas boi]

Dallas

1950s





1960s









1970s

[Dallas boi]

Grand Opening of Republic National Bank Building in 1954. The spire on the building was lit up at night and it had a rotating beacon on the top. Was the tallest building West of the Mississippi River.

[gwiATLeman]

Southern cities looked awesome when they were so young and innocent and not yet perverted by endless sprawl.

[I-275westcoastfl]

1906



1913



1921






Early 1900-1940's







Economy crashes are nothing new for Tampa, our cancelled buildings













1950's







1960's






1970's





1980's





1990's



Present

image hosted on flickr

[simms3]

Jacksonville Beach 1930s


Jacksonville Beach 2006 (courtesy of Lakelander on MetroJacksonville)


Jacksonville Shipyards Before






Presently (also courtesy of Lakelander)


Jacksonville Theater District Before




Presently


Jacksonville Jewish Enclave before


Presently




Lavilla before (also known as Harlem of the South)

in ~1920


1940s


Now




Bonus Pics

[WeimieLvr]

Originally Posted by I-275westcoastfl

Well urban renewal killed the historic cores of these cities especially Jacksonville. It's funny all the major FL cities grew at about the same rate and were similar in size until about the 70's when Miami surpassed the other cities and since then only South Florida has seen significant growth in their city centers.

Atlanta's historic core is still very much intact...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlie-Poplar

[desertpunk]

Amarillo 1943

[diskojoe]

i love these old pictures but it is so sad to see how the cities were ruined. in all the old pictures you see classy buildings and bustling commuters walking and frequenting areas then in the modern photos things look cheap and vacant. Houston got ruined, jacksonville definitely got ruined, richmond got ruined, tampa got ruined.

[dmoor82]

Yeah Discojoe I agree,White flight and urban renewel took real bad tolls on cities!Hell even Oklahoma City looked dense and Alive in old pics!

[OK2TX2NJ2NC]

Here is Raleigh

1908


1910's


1960's



1980's



Now the same view as the last two pictures acouple of years ago.


Today

[dmoor82]

Any more updates for this thread?This is one of my favs!

[Son of Dad]

Some more of Houston that hasn't been shown in this thread yet

1946

[Son of Dad]

[Insighter]

OMG!!!! Thank you! Thank you, for the old shots of the Republic Tower.... I used to work across the street from that building and always walked past it. It (and it's younger twin) looked so forlorn (so did the Commerce Bank building)... and it sort of looked sad. Interestingly, the Union Life building was just about to be renovated into condos. When I saw that aerial from the east above the Republic building, I remembered what my grandfather said once (he is deceased now)... that Dallas "took a turn North in 1950"... and of course, he was referring to the famous split at Pacific and Bryan. But in a way, he could have been referring to the fact that Dallas (post-war) became a magnet for Northerners moving to the south. When I spin around the M Streets and Park Cities, I imagine early post war Dallas, and I'm in love again. My grandfather who moved to Dallas in 1932 from the countryside said it (and it is true)... "Dallas gets into your blood when you don't realize it's happening." Makes you love the past, present and future of Dallas. Gawd! I hope that Dallas does not demolish all of its early post-war (1950s space age) architecture.

OMG... I had wondered what used to be at Thanksgiving Square, and these pics answer the question. Also, the sixth picture shows an under-construction Dallas Grand Hotel (I think)... and I never realized that the "main" entrance and lobby to the Republic Bank was at Pacific. Wonderful pics.... and the Doctors Building (I think that's it next door to the Republic Bank) was soooooo beautiful. I had heard a lot about that building. It was much taller than I imagined. I also would love to see pictures of the Cotton Exchange building... which was just a block to the north on Harwood (I think). Anyway... love the pics. Thanks! BTW: Most of those old buildings are still standing.

[Aceventura]

Originally Posted by dmoor82

Any more updates for this thread?This is one of my favs!

Me too, kudos to Dallas boi and everyone posting here.

[EE9009]

Alabama created the first state-funded department of archives and history in the United States in 1901, the Alabama Department of Archives.

The Following pictures are from their Archives
website: http://216.226.178.196


1915 (Looking Down 20th Street)


1915 (Downtown)


1907 (From Brown Marx Building)


1907 (Again from Brown Marx)


1890s-1900s (Looking North on 20th From 5 Points South)


1900s (View of 1st Ave N)


St. Vincents Hospital 1907


40s-50s (From Vulcan Park)


Sloss in 1940s


20th Street in 1930s


40s view of Downtown


50s - 60s View from Red Mountain


Damage from 1963 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing.


Four young African American girls were killed from this in the height of the civil rights movement.

[ADCS]

Originally Posted by diskojoe

i love these old pictures but it is so sad to see how the cities were ruined. in all the old pictures you see classy buildings and bustling commuters walking and frequenting areas then in the modern photos things look cheap and vacant. Houston got ruined, jacksonville definitely got ruined, richmond got ruined, tampa got ruined.

The biggest difference I see is that 1970s-80s "superblock" building design just annihilated any sense of walkability that the old downtowns had.