Think of Pasadena, and the Rose Parade immediately comes to mind. The Parade is now 5 1/2 miles along Colorado Blvd, Pasadena’s main thoroughfare. It was first held in 1890 and originally designed to attract tourists from the wintery “back East”. On the first day, there were 3,000 in attendance; in 2026 there were somewhere between 700-850,000 with 56 million viewing worldwide. The first two photos show the initial parade and first float winner.

Rose Bowl

The first Rose Bowl game was in 1902 – the first post-season collage football game. The game was added to help finance the Rose Parade. As crowds grew, a new stadium was needed. Construction began in 1922 in time for the 1926 game. The venue has since hosted 5 Super Bowls, the 1984 Olympic soccer match, the 1994 and 1999 World Cup, and 4 BCS football championships. The first photo is dated 1922.

Green Hotel

The Green Hotel was built in 1893 and later expanded to include two new structures. One of them became apartments in 1924 and the original hotel was demolished in 1935. The remaining building is known as Castle Green with condos. It also hosts weddings and film productions such as The Sting. The walkway was a popular area to view the Rose Parade on Raymond Ave. and it still is as it passes on a street nearby. The first photo is dated 1904.

Huntington Hotel

The Huntington Hotel opened in 1914 on 20 acres of land. In the early 20s, 27 bungalows were built for permanent residents. In 1989, a 100-million-dollar renovation project was completed. It is now known as the Langham-Huntington Hotel. The first photo is dated 1927.

Colorado Street Bridge

The Colorado Street Bridge opened in 1913 at a cost of 6.5 million in today’s dollars. It is 1,500 ft. long and 150 ft. high. Upon completion, it was the largest concrete bridge in the world. The first and third photos are dated 1931.

Desiderio Park

Hoquiam WA

The former Northern Pacific RR Station was built in 1914. It ended passenger service in 1955 and is now occupied by the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. The first photo is dated 1917.

Los Angeles Union Station

Los Angeles Union Station opened in 1939, seen here in a photo taken on it’s dedication day. It became “The last of the Great Railway stations” in the U.S., at one time carrying 110,000 passengers per day.

Boston and Main Depot

The Boston and Main Depot in Lowell MA was built in 1876. By 1895, it had ceased operations. Numerous occupancies followed, including movie theater, bowling alley, paint store, and real estate office. In 1989, a major renovation was completed. It involved saving the existing brick walls and constructing an entirely new building inside. It is now an academic center. The first photo is undated.

Independence IA Depot

The Illinois Central Depot in Independence IA was built in 1892. In 1994 it was sold for $1 and moved to its present location. It is now a railroad museum. The first photo is dated 1910 and the second is undated.

Portland OR Depot

The Portland OR Depot opened in 1896 after six years of construction, and it is still operating with 900,000 passengers per year. In the 1920s, it had about 90 trains per day. The first photo is dated 1913.

Grand Central, the grandest of them all, is located at 42nd St. and Park Ave. Sitting on 48 acres, it opened in 1913 after ten years of construction. The first photo is dated 1913.

Above the main entrance is a group of statues weighing 1,200 tons. The largest is Mercury. Here also is a photo of a worker in the shop in 1912 positioned on it’s 11-foot arm to give a sense of scale.

North Creek Station

North Creek Station, located in Johnsburg NY, looks exactly as it did when it opened in 1872. It is where Teddy Roosevelt learned of McKinley’s death and his own ascension to the Presidency. For more history and great old photos, visit North Creek Depot Museum website. The first photo is dated ca.1911.

Santa Fe Station

The first railroad station in San Angelo TX was built for the Santa Fe Railroad in the late 1800s. It closed in 1929. Since 2004, it has been occupied by Catholic Outreach Services. The first photo is dated ca1908.

Denver & Rio Grand Station Durango CO.

The D&RG Station in Durango opened in 1882, in part to service the narrow gauge line to the mining town of Silverton. It still operates in the summer months taking tourists up the gorge. The first photo is dated 1923 and the third is dated 1938.

Same photo Colorized

In addition to many historic buildings, St. Louis also has numerous structures that help define its past, such as:

Eads Bridge

Built over the Mississippi River between 1867 and 1874, Eads Bridge was designed to connect St. Louis with East St. Louis on the Illinois side. It is the oldest bridge on the Mississippi. The first photo was taken during construction, the second is dated ca1870, and the third is dated 1890.

Grand Ave. Water Tower

The Grand Ave. Water Tower was built in 1871 and remains to this day the largest free-standing column (154ft.) in the world. It actually never held water; it just regulated the pressure. It was taken out of service in 1912. The first photo is dated 1915.

Free Flight Cage

The Smithsonian Institution commissioned the Free Flight Cage for the 1904 Fair with the intention of having it become part of the National Zoo in Washington D.C. That did not happen since St. Louis bought the Cage, starting St. Louis’s famous zoo–the first municipally funded zoo in the world. The first photo shows the Cage under construction and the second photo is undated.

Finally, here is a then and now photo of the Fair site taken from Art Hill.

A significant part of St Louis history is its hosting of the 1904 World’s Fair, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, commemorating the 1803 Purchase. The Fair was held on 1,200 acres with 1500 buildings all seen by 19 million visitors in just seven months! With one exception, all buildings were torn down as they were all along expected to be temporary. The Fair ran from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Here is a photo of opening day.

Palace of Fine Arts

The one exception is the Fine Arts Building, now the St Louis Art Museum. The first photo is dated 1903 and the next from 1904.

It sits atop Art Hill which has long been a popular sledding spot as seen in this ca1930s photo.

Brookings Hall

Although used as the temporary administrative offices for the Fair, Brookings Hall opened on the grounds of Washington University in 1902 as a permanent facility for the Brookings Institute, headquartered in Washington D.C. The first photo is dated 1901.

Old County Courthouse

The Old County Courthouse was built from 1839 to 1862. It was the site of the famous Dred Scott decision. It is now part of the Gateway Arch National Park. The first photo is dated 1865.

St. Louis Union Station

The St. Louis Union Station opened in 1894, and, at the time, was the largest in the world. It is currently a hotel, entertainment complex, and shopping center. The first photo is dated 1938.

Linnean House

The Linnean House was built in 1882 on the grounds of the Missouri Botanic Garden. It is the oldest, continuously, operating greenhouse west of the Mississippi River. The first photo is dated ca1905.

Porter Brothers Store

The Porter Brothers Store opened in the center of town in 1906. It was extremely popular, but, when the rhyolite mines plaid out, it closed in 1910. The first photo is undated.

Train Depot

The Rhyolite train depot was built in 1907 at a cost of four million dollars in today’s money. It serviced three railroads, one of which brought in 50 freight cars per day. It closed in 1919. The first photo is dated 1909 and the second shows it under restoration by the BLM.

School

The second Rhyolite school replaced the previous one, which had had grown from 26 students in 1906 to 225 the next year all in one room! It too closed four years later. The first photo is dated 1930s.

Bottle House

Since wood was scarce in Rhyolite, Tom Kelly decided to build his home using materials that were in abundant supply–beer and whiskey bottles, 30,000 in all! The first photo shows the home under construction in 1906. The second is undated.

Jail

The Rhyolite jail was built in 1907 to save the $15 expense to house each inmate in nearby Bullfrog. The first photo is dated 1920s.

This photo sums up just how picturesque are the ruins of Rhyolite.

Rhyolite is a ghost town about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, near Death Valley National Park. It began in 1905 as a two-man mining camp and rose to 1,200 in two weeks! By 1907, it had electricity, water mains, newspapers, telephones, a school, and hospital. Yet, at the end of 1910, the rhyolite mine was losing money, and it closed in 1911. The population dwindled rapidly. Much of the building materials were salvaged and used elsewhere in the area. Still, enough ruins have remained to attract numerous tourists through the years. Here are some street scenes and views of the remaining structures.

Circus Day 1907.

Minors Union Parade 1906

Cook Bank

Two former bank buildings are still visible. One is the Cook Building seen here in 1908 and 1915 photos.

Overbury Bank

When Rhyolite died, many structures were scavenged for building materials. Note the stone columns by the men posing in this undated photo. Those columns are about all that is left of the Overbury Building.

Cook and Overbury

Here is an undated photo showing the Cook and Overbury Buildings together.

Finally, here is an aerial shot with the two buildings plus the Porter Store across the street. That Store and three other surviving buildings appear next month.

Outside of the numerous towns and villages on Cape Cod, there are many more historic sites. Here are six of them:

Chatham

Chatham Bars Inn

Situated on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic, Chatham Bars Inn opened as a luxury hotel in 1914. It quickly became an escape for residents of New York City and Boston. In 2006, it underwent a $100 million renovation and now consists of 217 rooms and 35 cottages, all on 25 acres. The first photo is dated 1933.

Eastham

Eastham Windmill

Built in 1680, the Eastham Windmill is the oldest and last working grist mill on Cape Cod. The first photo is dated 1907.

West Dennis

Bass River Lighthouse

The Bass River Lighthouse opened in 1855 and operated until 1914. It then opened as the Lighthouse Inn in 1938 on nine acres of oceanfront property. The Coast Guard recognizes the Lighthouse as the only privately owned and working one in the U.S. The first photo is undated.

Monomoy Island

Monomoy Island is an eight-mile-long stretch of sand extending into the Atlantic. It is uninhabited and accessible only by ferry. It is home to Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge as well as Monomoy Point Lighthouse. The latter was built of cast iron in 1829 and de-commissioned in 1923. Currently it is part of the Island tour. The first photo is dated 1849.

Woods Hole

Woods Hole Golf Club

Founded in 1899, Woods Hole Golf Club sits atop a bluff overlooking Buzzards Bay. Its clubhouse was built in 1921. The first photo is undated.

Falmouth

Shiverick’s Pond

Named after a local clergyman in 1708, Shivereck’s Pond has been a source of recreation and education for over 300 years. The first photo is dated 1900.

Cape Cod is a peninsula reaching 65 miles into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts. The name was given by an English explorer in 1602 on account of the abundance of cod fish. There are 15 towns and numerous villages, all with historic sites. Here is a look at some of them.

Providence

303 Commercial St. For a point of reference, note the car by the door in the 1920s photo. The building is now the Post Office Cafe and Cabaret.

West Yarmouth

The Baxter Grist Mill in West Yarmouth was built in 1710, operated for nearly 200 years, and restored to its original working order in 1961 and 1989. The first photo is dated 1875.

Brewster

Originally, the Brewster Store was built as a church in 1852. In 1886 it was sold and became the store it still is today. The first photo is dated 1910.

Chatham

Chatham comprises only 16 square miles and is surrounded on three sides by water. It was settled in 1664 and incorporated in 1712. The first two photos are undated.

Sandwich

Incorporated in 1639, Sandwich is the oldest town on Cape Cod and one of the oldest in the U.S. The current town hall was built in 1834 and is seen here in an 1870s photo.

I

Whaley House

The Whaley House was built in 1857 as a private residence. It is the oldest brick building in southern California. During its long history, it also served as a general store, county courthouse, theater, and now a museum. The first photo is dated 1865 and the second is from early 1900s.

Hotels

A lot of San Diego’s history lives on in its famous hotels. Here are four of them.

Cosmopolitan

The Cosmopolitan Hotel was built with 10,000 adobe bricks and opened in 1829. In 1869, it was renovated into a stage stop and hotel that lasted until1888 when it was converted to an olive factory. It re-emerged in the 1930s as a hotel. After extensive renovation it reopened in 2010 to its 1870’s grandeur. The first photo is undated and the second is dated 1872.

Del Coronado

Located on Coranado Island just across San Diego Bay is the Del Coronado Hotel aka The Del. It opened in 1888 and is still the second largest wooden structure in the U.S. The Crown Room ceiling is made with pegs and glue, no nails. The second photo is dated 1880s and the fourth is undated.

U.S. Grant Hotel

The U.S. Grant Hotel was built by the son of U.S. Grant and opened in 1910 after five years of construction at a cost of 1.9 million dollars (68 million today). By 1979 it was facing demolition, but was saved and renovated at a cost of 80 million dollars in 1984 (320 million today). The first photo is dated 1910.

Horton Grand Hotel

The Horton Grand was actually two hotels built in 1897 and slated for demolition in the 1970s. They were dismantled brick by brick, numbered, catalogued, and stored. Then, in 1986, they were rebuilt as one at a new location. A guest for seven years at the original Horton was none other than Wyatt Earp. During that time, he leased four bars and frequented another nearby called the Trivoli. It is the oldest bar in San Diego having opened in 1885. The first photo is dated early 1885.