Restoration

In 1920, the First National Bank building on the corner of Fair Oaks and Mission in South Pasadena looked like this. Notice the streetcar tracks in the middle of Fair Oaks:

Today, almost completely restored and about to open as a branch of Comerica Bank, it looks like this:

For more information, including a glimpse at what the building looked like in the interim, see today's post on Laurie Allee's wonderful blog Glimpses of South Pasadena.

A careful examination of the back of the building reveals that the stonework is a facade. I presume the original stonework was a facade as well. To see what the building looked like before this restoration, go to Google Maps and look at the street view of Fair Oaks and Mission.