Colorized 1904 Photo of Congress Street in Portland is Amazing

I love looking at old black and white photos of Portland. When I do I always wish I had a time machine so that I could go back and see what things looked like in living color. Until Marty McFly shows up with a Delorean this October (I wish), a fantastic colorized photo of Congress Street will do nicely.

The above photo was found in a thread on reddit colorized by Patty Allison and is looking down Congress Street toward Monument Square. It looks a lot different 111 years later in 2015. This is the Google Street view from about the same location.

Some buildings are gone, some are still there but totally changed, and others remain the same. The people sure have changed too.

The trolleys are gone today, but if you were to dig up the street you'd still find the rails. In fact, there's a place I spotted on Congress Street where the pavement has crumbled away revealing the old trolley tracks.

In the above close up you can see the dome of the old Portland City Hall that burned in a fire in 1908. The current City Hall was built in the same location. You can see the tall steeple of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception that still stands today as well.

And then there's this Presidential Campaign flag flying over Congress Street for Roosevelt and Fairbanks. Theodore Roosevelt won the election in a landslide in 1904 with his Vice President Charles Fairbanks.

Patty did an amazing job bringing this photo to life, and it appears she may be working on another photo soon. I can't wait to see it!