Saturday, June 12, 2010

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.

5 comments:

TheChieftess said...

You're right about the sign Mr. E!!! It does clash with the building!!! Darn that branding!!! At least they restored the building though!!! Unlike Rite Aid in Long Beach which demolished in the night the beautiful Egyptian pharmacy building and the proceeded to construct their AWFUL building with their "new" blue diamond branding...to this day I avoid Rite Aid...which will be hard in Mammoth cause it's the only one!!! Damn!!!

Laurie Allee said...

Cool old shot, Mister E! I'm linking to you...

Shanna said...

These two photos are a great comparison!

Virginia said...

Well they didn't bulldoze that sucker down and put up a parking lot! Bravo!
V

Anonymous said...

I most particularly like seeing the old tracks