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| First Street, near the intersection with Hensley Street, looking north (mid-1930s). Ironically, the old trolley lines were removed and paved over in the 1940s. When the modern light rail went in, new track had to be laid. (SJHM) Want to read more about San Jose's streetcars? |
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| The post office on North First Street 1930 and in 2007. The photo on the left appeared on a postcard. (SJHM) |
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South Market Street, looking at St. Joseph's Cathedral and what was then the Post Office, now the San Jose Museum of Art. The shot on the left appeared on a post card in the 1930s and is probably an artist's rendition rather than a photograph. (SJHM)
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| The same building, but this time comparing an actual photograph taken in 1910 with one taken in 2007. Once the Post Office, it is now the San Jose Art Museum. The Knight-Ridder building looms in the background on the right and you can see the extension of the museum on the right. |
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| The same buildings on South Market Street as in the prior photos, this time looking south from Post Street. St. Joseph's Cathedral and the San Jose Museum of Art are on the left side. The photo on the left is from the 1930s. Sandy Ragsdale supplied the photo on the left. |
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| St. Joseph's Cathedral 1930s and 2007. The shot on the left is from a postcard. (SJHM) |
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| North First Street looking south toward Santa Clara with the distinctive Bank of America Building tower -- 1929, circa 1957, and 2007. The middle shot is from a postcard. (SJHD) |
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The California Theater still stands! I thought the photo on the left, judging from the cars, was from 1915-1920. Boy, was a wrong. Hugo Fuchs, a sharp-eyed visitor to the site let me know that "the playbill reads "Billie Dove in An Affair of the Follies" which was released in 1927.
On the other hand, the name Doris Eaton is on the board, and her closest movie to that time was "Taking the Count" which might be what is on the billing placing it at 1928. I'd best guess the picture as 1928." I just love getting email like that! (SJHM) |
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| The same majestic California Theater - 1945 and January 2008. (SJHM). I even managed to get a comparison of vehicles. |
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| First Street at Williams, looking north. Some building survive, some don't.... Maybe I should rename this page "San Jose Survivors" (SJHM) |
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| The Sainte Claire Hotel on a postcard from the 30s and 2007. (SJHD) |
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| The Montgomery Theater at the corner of Market and San Carlos was built in the 1930s and the photo on the left was taken in 1936 . The trees have grown, but little else about the site has changed in over 60 years. I thought about trying to take the photo again in the winter when the trees have lots their leaves but, as you can see, most of them are palms and evergreens. |
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| The Civic Auditorium taken from the corner of Market and San Carlos, looking west. The lightrail line is new and the palms are gone, but the building has not changed much. |
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| Trinity Episcopal Church (built 1863) is a wonderful example of Carpenter architecture. It's at the corner of Second Street and St. John. An undated photo on the left and one from 2007. (SJHD) |
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| The Unitarian Church on Third Street was dedicated in 1892. In 1995, during expansion and reconstruction, there was a six-alarm fire that virtually gutted it. As you can see, it was beautifully restored. (SJCWP) |
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| Just north of the Unitarian Church is the Scottish Rites Temple (left, circa 1930), now the home of the San Jose Athletic Club. Third Street was once a two-way street there, but is now a one-way street running north as far a Julian, where it is a two-way street again. (SJHD) |
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| Another view of the same section of Third Street, showing the Scottish Rites Temple on the left, then the Unitarian Church and the building next to it -- a modern office building with the facade of the original building decorating the front. (SJHM) |
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| Originally (in 1903) this was the Sperry Flour Building at 30 North Third Street, just a block from the buildings above. The building is now the home of Works/San Jose art gallery. (CFBB) |
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| The Sainte Claire Club was built in 1893 as a meeting place for San Jose businessmen. The road appears to be gravel or dirt and those appear to be hitching posts(!) in the foreground!. The building on the right is now a parking lot and the palm trees have grown out of sight. The tree in the middle of the photo on the left is gone but, judging from the split trunk, the tree on the far left is the same tree. |
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| While we're at the park, here are two photos of the McKinley statue. The buildings in the background on the left are NOT behind the trees in the second photo -- they were replaced by the Post Office (above), which you can't see because of the trees. (SJHD) |
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| On the left is a postcard of the original Christian Science Church on Julian which overlooks St. James Park. It was built in 1902-1904 and used as a church until 1946. It was used for a while as a theater but has been boarded up and unused for decades. The Preservation Action Council of San Jose is monitoring the building and working with the owner to find an economically feasible solution to allow its preservation. (SJHM) |
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| This building is just west of the old Christian Science Church above. You can see its dome rising in the background. Once a garage, it has undergone some serious remodeling and is now The Oasis nightclub. |
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| Post Street runs between Market Street and First Street. The shot on the left is fairly recent -- around 1980 (correct me if I'm wrong). The one on the right was taken in 2007. |
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| The only way I could tell this was the same photo is the dome on the left -- it's Santa Clara Street, looking west, from Third Street. The photo on the left is dated 1910. The building in the distance that is under construction is the old First National Bank building on the southwest corner of First and Santa Clara, not the Bank of America building that looms in the background of the photo on the right, which is on the southeast corner. The old First National Bank came down years ago and was replaced by the modern building that is there today. I'm still working on a good before-and-after photo of that corner. (SJHD) |
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| Here's a view of the same stretch of Santa Clara Street as the photos above, but this looks at the southeast corner of Second Street at Santa Clara, showing the same dome. The photo on the left was taken in the 1940s. (SJHM) |
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This photo fascinates me. The description says it was taken of the building at the southeast corner of Second and Santa Clara in *1874*
It is clearly not the same building shown above, but there are sure are a lot of architectural similarities: the windows, the molding below the roofline and below the windows. Could the current building be an expansive remodel? (SJHM) |
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| On the southeast corner of Third and Santa Clara they built the original YMCA. The building is still there, converted to office space, and available for lease. |
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| Did you know that the Southern Pacific Railroad used to run regular trains down Fourth Street? I don't mean trolley or streetcars - freight trains! The photos were both taken looking down from the building on the southwest corner of Third and Santa Clara, but of course there is no train there today. The distinctive Medico-Dental building can be seen in the background, but everything in between is gone..(SJHM) |
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| This is the building on the southwest corner of Third and Santa Clara, where Hank Coca's Downtown Furniture store is today. Mr. Coca was kind enough to let me into the third floor of his building to take the photo just above these showing the view of Fourth Street where freight trains used to run. The photo on the left is undated (SJHD), but obviously pretty old judging from the horse-drawn cart in front. The Oddfellows owned it at the time the photo on the left was taken. The building has been changed a lot -- the balcony removed from the front, but a corner added -- but it has survived the decades. |
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| Back at the turn of the 20th century, three men owned three adjacent pieces of property on Second Street, just south of Santa Clara. Wenger, Knapp and Clark hired the architectural firm of Wolfe & McKenzie to build this large building on the three lots. It was two levels, with 26 apartments built over six 8,900 square foot stores, plus a full basement. The building was later the Jose Hotel. In 1995-1996, the upper floors became condominiums and the ground floor became Zanotto's grocery store. And of course the light rail runs down the middle of the street now. |
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| At 82 South Second is the "Knights of Pythias" building, built in 1893. It has housed a variety of businesses over the years. |
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| The Jose Theater on South Second is still a movie theater! It was empty for many years until the Redevelopment Agency made renovation and restoration possible. Second Street was a two way street in the photo (1941) on the left, but it is now one-way going south. Notice the difference in cars. |
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| Another view of the Jose Theater taken in 1947. |
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| First Street, looking north from San Fernando. On the left, a shot from the late 1920s (The Bank of America Building tower went up in 1927) taken from whatever building was there at that time. For the second shot, I had to get into offices in the current Knight-Ridder Building (BDO Seidman, LLP and Nationwide Exchange Services -- thank you both!) and ask them for permission to use their corner offices. |
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| The San Jose Building and Loan Association on Santa Clara between First Street and Market Street, was built in 1927. The photo on the left was taken in the 1940s. In 2007 it's the "Vault Ultra Lounge." (SJHD) |
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| All the ornamentation is gone, but it is still the same building. At the turn of the 20th century, it housed a fine French restaurant called the La Molle House. In 2007 it is the Aconda Residence Hotel for low-income renters above, and several eateries, including a Starbucks, on the street level. News in 2007 was the building was purchased by a firm that was evicting the tenants in order to renovate the building for office space. (SJHD) |
 At the left is an even older photo of the same building -- horse and buggy days -- This is a copy of a postcard commemorating the 1908 visit to La Molle Restaurant by teams participating in the Great Race. ROTP |
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| Of course Henry's World Famous Hi-Life
on West St. John Street
is still standing! Talk about a survivor! The building went up in 1900 and was once the Torino Hotel. |
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| At the corner of First Street and San Carlos is a popular downtown restaurant that has survived the decades - Original Joe's (est. 1937)! Note the change in light poles. (ROTP) |
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| The Hotel Montgomery was originally built in 1911 on the corner of First and San Antonio. It fell on hard times and was vacant for many years. Preservationist insisted it be moved instead of destroyed to make room for the Fairmont Hotel annex. It was successfully moved to its current location 186 feet south, extensively renovated, and reopened in 2004. Bravo! [The light rail now runs along Market and obscures much of this lovely old building, but -- hey -- it survived! |
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| San Jose State University's Tower in 1955, and the same view in 2007, with the City Hall dome and highrise poking up in the background. That palm tree on the right of the 1955 photo has grown right out of the photo. |
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| Another view of the San Jose State Tower. The photo on the right was taken from the fifth floor of the Martin Luther King Library. The covered walkways are gone and you can see the new dorms rising in the background. |
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| In the 1940s the building on the left at the corner of St. James and Devine housed the Levi-Straus Company. Today it is part of the Santa Clara County Superior Court system (Criminal, Dependency and Drug Treatment). (SJHM) |
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| Looking west on Santa Clara Street at the De Anza Hotel. The photo on the left is from the 1930s. The tower of the Bank of Italy Building in the distance is still visible in the second photo. The angle is a bit off, but I couldn't stand in the middle of the street to take the photo. Thanks to Sandy Ragsdale for contributing the old photo. |
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Okay, the Medico-Dental building is obviously still there but the First Methodist Church is history. Long-time local resident Allan Furtado emailed to inform me that the church fell due to a fire in the 70s. Later Gary Singh wrote to tell me it was in the early 1990s that the church burned. "Hundreds of us were out there in the street watching that as it happened. And
drinking beer .... I distinctly remember the old
ladies from the church crying as it was burning down." The photos on the left was dated 1941. The middle photo is from a postcard dated 1970s courtesy of Sandy Ragsdale. |
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| A front view of the same lovely old Medico-Dental Building, 1930s and 2007. (SJHD) |
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| I am indebted to Otto Lee of the Intellectual Property Law Group who has offices on the 12th Floor of the Bank of America Building at First and Santa Clara, for letting me into his office to take this photo. The angle is not exactly the same, but you can see the dramatic growth in downtown east of First Street. San Jose City Hall has transformed the view; Santa Clara Street is now edged with trees. A few buildings still remain, such as the Medico Dental building. San Jose Hospital in the far distance on the righthand photo is empty and will soon come down. (SJCWP) |
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| Some buildings, of course, do not survive. The block of building on the left (photo taken in the 1950s) housed retail stores on the south side of San Fernando between First and Market. The building on the right is the back of the new wing of the San Jose Art Museum. If the building were not quite as tall, you could see the two towers of the old wing of the San Jose Art Museum that are visible in the left photo. |
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| This is another block of buildings that did not survive urban renewal. The scene on the left was taken of the south side of San Antonio between First and Market in 1957. Today this is a pedestrian walkway south of the Fairmont Hotel. |
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| It's hard to believe this is the same curve. It's hard to believe the curve is still there! That's the north end of the park that splits Market Street south of San Fernando. The photo on the left was taken in 1866 and most of what you see was then Chinatown with a brewery looming behind the then-new water tower. Now the site holds the Fairmont Hotel. (SJHD) |
| Photos beyond downtown San Jose |
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| The Beech-Nut Baby Food Factory on Senter Road (circa 1960) on the left is now the home of the San Jose Historical Museum (among others), the source of many of these old photos. |
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| San Jose State University built Spartan Stadium in 1933 (photo at left). It seated 4,000. The photo on the left shows the stadium in 2007 and it seats over 30,000. Okay, the photo on the left wasn't taken from the precisely the same spot, but the original photo was probably taken from the north end scoreboard! |
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| This is the San Jose Water Works building on West Santa Clara Street, separated from downtown by Highway 87. The photo on the left was labeled 1985, but I can't believe those palm trees went from non-existent to higher than the building in a little over 20 years! |
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| Cahill Depot on Cahill Street near Montgomery and Santa Clara, also known as Southern Pacific Depot, photographed in the 1930s and again in 2007. It is now known as Diridon Station. Not much has changed except the parking situation. |
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| I wish I had taken a photo a few months ago when this building was covered with ivy and barely recognizable. The circa 1929 photo on the left is of the Packard Dealership on The Alameda. See the cars on display? The building is currently vacant but reportedly being returned to its former glory by the contractor/developer. |
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| This was originally an office of the Bank of Giannini, later Bank of America, on the corner of Hester Avenue and The Alameda. It was a realtor's office for many years, then a series of coffee houses, and is now a hair salon. |
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| You might not know this is the same stretch of The Alameda looking north from its intersection with Santa Clara Street and the north end of Race Street but the landmarks are the peaked roof of the building on the left and the sign for Andy's Pet Stop on the right. The angle is a bit off because I was not willing to jump into traffic. I'm not sure of the age of the photo on the left. It looks like the 1950s judging from the cars. |
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| This shot of Julian Street looking east from The Alameda shows the old Fredricksburg Brewery, established in 1869. It was not just a brewery, but eventually included a saloon and a hotel. It was closed during prohibition and reopened in 1933. It was purchased by Falstaff in 1959 (I am working on getting a picture of that!). It all came tumbling down in 1980 and Avalon on The Alameda (apartments and condominiums, with stores facing The Alameda) was built on the site. |
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| The Rosecrucian Museum was built in 1936 on Park Avenue in the neighborhood known today as the Rose Garden. The Rosecrucian has changed greatly over the years, and many buildings added, but the Planeterium looks pretty much the same. |
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| In the 1940s, the corner of Santa Clara, Race Street, and The Alameda was home to Tiny's -- the place to be seen. Now it's a Baskin-Robbins and Togo's, the Mission Pipe Shop and a Pasta Pomodoro Restaurant. When I mentioned Tiny's to an elderly man I met, he said he remembered it well. "Heck," he said, "I practically lived at Tiny's." |
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| Lincoln Law, now in downtown San Jose, was once housed in this building on Park Avenue, just east of Race Street. It is now home to Sandeepany Center for Vedantic Studies. ROTP |
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| The oOutside tile decoration is gone as well as the signage and awning, but it really is the same building on Park Avenue just north of Taylor. |
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| Lincoln High School then and now. The photo on the left says "SJ 73" on it, but the photo has been said to be much older. |
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| Hoover Middle School on Park Avenue in the Rose Garden Neighborhood was built in the 1930s. The photo on the left is from the 50s. It would have been nice to find two young women to pose in the same spot, but at 2:00 PM there was nobody around. Thanks to a lawsuit (Peter Uzzi was the lawyer) and intensive preservation action in the 1990s, this lovely old school was saved from the wrecking ball. |
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| The old Quaker Church was built in 1885 and survives today! It barely escaped when Highway 17 was built. The Alameda entrance to Highway 17 is on the other side of that green screen of plants on the left. |
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| Willow Glen was once a separate municipality, with its own mayor and its own movie theater --The Garden Theater. Now the building houses small shops and businesses. (OWG) |
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| This United Methodist Church at Minnesota and Newport in Willow Glen dates from 1947. It's been modified over the years, but has survived at its present location. |
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| Willow Glen had a pizza parlor too back in the 50s -- and the same building is STILL a pizza parlor -- Willow Street Pizza. (OWG) |
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| This is a lovely old home at 22nd Street and Jackson, currently being lovingly restored. The photo on the left is courtesy of Bill Briggs, which he took for a photo contest when he was a sophomore in high school. This photo inspired me to start a "Homes" section. |
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| This lovely mansion on The Alameda is one of many still standing. A walk along The Alameda is a great way to view prime examples of the high-end residential architecture of the early 1900s. For more photos of homes that have survived, visit the San Jose Then and Now " Homes" section. |
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| Would photos of San Jose be complete without at least one photo of a freeway? The photo on the left was taken in 1970, when 280 was still being built. It's of the railroad crossing west of Bird Avenue. I assume it was taken from the Bird Avenue overcrossing, which is where I got the present-day shot on the right. (SJHD) |
