Downtown — Then and Now

Were lucky to live where so many of our old buildings are still standing and still functioning. It's pretrty interesting to peruse all these villeinage pictures and, from time to time, when I find something interesting, I'll pass it on to you.

The folks at the McNeese Library were nice enough to help me out when I went to them looking for vintage pictures of the city. What they provided me is amazing and, frankly, somewhat of a daunting task because there are just so many pictures in the collection.

I selected a few shots at random, then I went downtown with my handy little phone and took pictures of the buildings as they look today. I tried, whenever possbile, to shot at about the same angle as the original pictures.

Here are a few shots to get us started.

Back in 1930, this was the Post Office and the courthouse. You have to love those vintage cars in the shot. Those palm trees were a nice touch as well

Now, here is that same building as it stands today. The building is now law offices at the corner of Broad and Hodges

Moving along on Ryan Street, this is a shot from the intersection of Ryan and Division. that's the corner where the old Muller's Building still stands. Muller's isn't visible in this shot. The building closest to the camera was First National Bank.

This is how that same intersection looks today:

Finally, we have this great shot from 1905. Back in the day, this was Von Puhl and Gordon's Drug Store. When this picture was taken, the city was just putting in the streetcar tracks.

Today, as we all know, that location is the Pujo Street Cafe.

Those are just a few of the great examples of architecture that we have in Lake Charles. There will be more to follow.