San Francisco was unrecognizable a hundred years ago -- it looks alternately like a Kansas farm with wooden shacks and dirt streets, or like Cape Cod with windy grassy dunes. LookBackMaps gathers olde-timey photos from around the web and places them in time and space, then sets them alongside a current view of the street from Google -- the results are sort of like hovering in a time-traveler's pod.
Check out the corner of Fillmore and Post in the 1920's -- it looks like a movie set from a western. Or Dolores Park in the 1860s -- it wasn't a park at all, but a cemetery. Eddy and Filmore in the 1920s, mansions at Gough and Ellis in the 1960s -- there are so many layers of ghosts that we stroll by every day. Some of the most remarkable photos are from the recent past, such as the demolition of buildings in the Fillmore to make room for housing projects. That went well.
The site accepts submissions from users, so go ahead and donate if you have any old photos lying around. We're looking forward to seeing you in the past.
Loading comments...