Here, take a look back at old Lake Tahoe – the big, beautiful lake that has been a popular vacation spot for generations.
Old cities and places
Famous actor Gary Cooper spent most of his time in sunny California, but he loved snowy Aspen, Colorado so much, he decided to build a house there.
Starting in 1914, there was a lot of hype about Old Gilbert, Arizona, a little town near Phoenix: ‘the fastest growing and most prosperous community in the Southwest.” See how it’s grown!
Even today, there are ships buried under downtown San Francisco that you might walk over, on land reclaimed from the Bay thanks to the Gold Rush.
See what it took to get the Golden Gate Bridge built, plus see dozens of pictures of the construction, and the celebration when it finally opened in 1937.
After years of growth, Detroit became a major transportation hub, and many gorgeous Victorian mansions were built for wealthy residents.
Predictions of the future from the early 1900s included the idea that a subway shuttle across New York City would be replaced with a moving sidewalk built in three sections, one of which would offer seating.
Camp Roberts, in central California, was one of the military’s top training sites during World War II. Here’s a peek at what life was like there.
Scroll down and take a stroll into the iconic orange-roofed ice cream restaurants – vintage Howard Johnson’s – that were so popular in the fifties & sixties.
In 1883, the volcano of Krakatoa erupted in cataclysmic fashion. Considered the single largest natural explosion in recorded history, the eruption killed upwards of 36,000 people.
See old Phoenix, Arizona as it looked back in the 1800s and 1900s, when the city’s population was low and there were plenty of wide-open spaces.
Located in Beverly Hills, the Beverly Hilton hotel was opened in the 1950s, and boasted 450 air-conditioned rooms, private balconies, sunken swimming pool cabanas, shops and parking for 1000 cars.
The Next Door restaurant in the ’70s had Revolutionary War-themed decor, and you placed your order via a red telephone at your table.
George Eastman: The man behind Kodak (1854-1932) George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, and often called “the father of photography” was many things — a
On May 18, 1980, an earthquake shook beneath Mount St. Helens in Washington, and triggered an enormous volcanic eruption. Here’s a look back.
Uncle Sam’s scientists, armed with every known precision test instrument, have set out to answer the much-debated question of “How safe are skyscrapers?”
If you were alive in the ’70s & ’80s, you know that Vintage 7-Eleven stores weren’t just a place to shop – they were the corner grocery & a place for kids to hang out.
Here are two views of old Rochester, New York – an overhead view from a new-style camera in the ’20s, and also birds-eye views of the city in 1853 and 1961.
When President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas in 1963, grief was felt all around the globe, and the question of motive has never been definitively answered.
The founder of Kodak built the George Eastman House, a 50-room Colonial Revival mansion in upstate New York. Now a museum, here’s what it looks like.
As these pictures of old post office buildings show, a lot of architecture from around 1900 was beautiful, ornate and built on a grand scale. Take a look!
A multi-million-dollar family amusement park – Six Flags Over Texas – has brought millions of people to a former strip of pasture.
Find out what set in motion the deadly chain of events that led to General Custer’s troops being overwhelmed by Sitting Bull’s force of 8,000 Lakota & Cheyenne during The Battle of Little Bighorn.
In a case study of terrible timing, the huge Habana Hilton hotel in Havana, Cuba, wasn’t even open for a year when it was taken over. Find out more here!
‘Man-eating shark attacks’ made the headlines back in 1916 after there were several attacks and deaths from sharks off the coast of New Jersey and New York. Find out what happened here!
The first article here takes a look back at the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 100 years later, from 1905.
The World Trade Center architect talks about how the towers were originally built, and see a collection of photos taken by visitors to NYC during the months and years before they fell.
What were early motorcycles like? Check out 17 of the top models from 1909, plus see how popular they were at the huge Los Angeles motorcycle meet!
A look back at some of the most famous historic hotels in Florida — the most magnificent resort hotels of the Victorian era, and where they stand now.
See scenes from the San Diego’s World’s Fair – a venue with gorgeous scenic beauty in a matchless climate – that took place from 1915 to 1917.
Up in Wyoming, the Cheyenne’s Frontier Days festival featured bronco riding, a wild horse race, stage hold-up, hanging bee, cow-pony races, etc. and other rodeo events.
Woodstock was supposed to be ‘3 days of peace and music’ – but as these stories from right after the concert describe, it didn’t exactly end up that way.
So this is Hollywood! (1922) If they hadn’t improved on the 1890 model bathing suit, Mack Sennet wouldn’t be where he is today. But if
As you can see from these Vintage Coney Island photos & postcards, This beach area just outside New York City was one of the most popular resorts in the United States.
On the inside of the pedestal of the world-famous New York landmark is the Statue of Liberty poem, written by Emma Lazarus to welcome immigrants and visitors to America.
Son the crooks and turnings and devious wanderings of Old Boston landmarks and byways would be nothing more than a memory of the past.
How did the great Gold Rush of 1849 get started? Find out its history, how it made people rich and poor – and helped make California what it is today.
The Boston Tea Party resulted from at least four important historical factors, and was, in fact, the catalyst for the Revolutionary war for independence.
See damage caused by the St Louis tornado in May 1896 – considered one of the deadliest on record with at least 255 lives lost – and get the whole story.
Come on in and take a look back at old Las Vegas from the 40s through the end of the 20th century, along with a surprising history of the Nevada desert locale.
Find out more about World War II’s important military offensive, the Battle of the Bulge, and see several pictures from the snowy scene.
Take a little 60-year leap back in time, and see how San Francisco looked back in 1955 in this video homage to the city by the bay.
New York City has provided entertainment to millions over the years. See vintage seating charts from some of the city’s most famous theaters!
Dive back into the past with these 16 views of beautiful San Francisco in the ’70s – from the skyscrapers to the bridges and everything in between.
Take a look back at ten old roller coasters from the early 1900s, and admire the courage of the riders who sat down in those rickety little cars and sped off into the wild blue yonder.
The Great Blizzard of 1888 lasted from March 11 through March 14, 1888, and is considered to be one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history.
The golden poppy was named California’s official State flower in 1903, and the orange blossom is now popularly known as the California Poppy.
Find out about the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, get some behind-the-scenes from the actual jewelry store, and hear from Audrey Hepburn herself in this collection of articles from the 1960s.
In bright and beautiful color, see some of the most beautiful sights in and around Utah’s Salt Lake City in 1900 – including the Mormon Temple, the Tabernacle, the Salt Palace, and the impressive Victorian Saltair Pavilion!
How did America get its name? The man from whom the continents got their names was an especially fascinating character of the late 15th century.
At the start of the Watts Riots, rumors of police brutality during an arrest quickly spread, and a crowd began to form. It was the flashpoint for rioting and rebellion that had been simmering under the surface of Los Angeles that summer.
An archaeologist discovered that the ‘buffalo wallows’ are actually the ruins of underground dwellings where lived a Native American/American Indian group that vanished thousands of years ago.
See 20 vintage scenes in and around Philadelphia in the 1950s & 60s! There’s the city itself, landmarks, suburbs, skylines and more from yesteryear.
Regular US combat units were deployed to Vietnam beginning in 1965, and while America’s direct military involvement ended on August 15, 1973, the last soldiers left Vietnam on March 29, 1975. Here, take a look back at how some of the military action was portrayed stateside by Newsweek magazine.
Here are images showing New York City’s growth from a frontier settlement known as New Amsterdam to the metropolis of the western world –through the Colonial times, and in the early days of US independence.
See up close the destruction that hit San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake in these colorized photos taken shortly after the fire was put out.
Fabian said he was taken to Auschwitz 10 months ago with 500,000 other Hungarian Jews, and that 400,000 were gassed and cremated in the first two months, and that only 1,000 remained alive.
What was it like to go looking for a new car more than 100 years ago? Here’s a look at some of the car showrooms that would have greeted automobile buyers!
It is hard to believe that only two centuries ago, Chicago was a lonely marshland of trees and tall grass, a place with an abundance of wild onions, from which the Iroquois gave it its name, Chicagou.
Vintage Los Angeles in the 1950s Take a retro peek back at the Los Angeles area of yesteryear! In addition to the huge cars (plus
Surrounded by a flood of music as the boat glides along, one scene merges into another as the children of the Disneyland ride ‘It’s a Small World’ sing and dance to the show’s lilting title tune.
The old steamship City of Chester sank just inside the Golden Gate in the San Francisco Bay – but she was rediscovered more than 100 years later.
From 1908: The new Hamburger department store is to be a city in itself, a veritable human beehive, with all the complexity of detail characterizing a busy city, save that it will be a metropolis in miniature,
Bloomingdale’s originally opened in 1861 when the Bloomingdale brothers began by selling hoop skirts on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Then in 1872, the two opened
What you will see at world’s biggest show New York’s billion dollar dream fair When the first visitors enter a onetime Long Island swamp on
Take a look at a more than 20 vintage road maps below, apparently preserved for years in car gloveboxes across the nation!
The Big Fair in Virginia more than 100 years ago offered Great Wild West show and other attractions give free exhibitions every day and night – plus a huge display of fireworks every night.
Dreamland and its beautiful tower attract the eye of the pleasure seeker long before Coney Island is reached. There is capital amusement under and about the big tower, and all the novelties are enjoying a large share of favor…
As incredible as it is, the first-person account below, written by polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, is really just the beginning of his story. In 1914,
On a clear, unseasonably hot morning on September 25, 1978, residents of San Diego’s North Park neighborhood were getting their days underway — not realizing they
Back in 1912, President Taft signed the proclamation admitting Arizona into the union as the 48th state in the US. Here’s how it went, and what Arizona looked like around that time.
Mme Demorest’s Emporium of Fashions – 473 Broadway, New York We think our lady readers will be both interested and benefited by having their attention called
There’s no sign proclaiming the FW Woolworth lunch counter here as the birthplace, 10 years ago today, of the sit-in movement that brought a new way of community life to the dual service and segregated South of the 1960s.
Delmonico’s was a popular restaurant during the Victorian era, which expanded into ten different locations over the years. Not only was the eatery famous, it
Greetings from California visitor postcard Retro ’40s postcard: Greetings from San Francisco, California Main scene of Fisherman’s Wharf “When the Golden Gate is golden”, San
Burger King — the nation’s fastest-growing chain of self-service restaurants — is so delightfully different, no wonder it has caught America’s fancy!
The Victorian-era Cliff House This early version of San Francisco’s Cliff House was destroyed by fire in 1894 A later version of the first Cliff
Cruise or fish or relax along Florida’s waterways (1957) Old Florida fun in 1957 MORE: See old Florida hotels & historic resorts: Trip back to
