What a great picture. It seems, from the cars stacked up on Fort St., that there was already a parking problem downtown in 1910.

Everytime I see a picture of old City Hall I am always amazed by the shifts in taste that found this building the height of monumental municipal modernity [[say that 3 times fast...) in the late 19th century, and an embarrassing civic eyesore to be eliminated by the mid-20th century. And now, when you show pictures like this one to people today, they find it hard to believe that such a building was purposely torn down.

Makes me a little more careful in my own aesthetic judgements about what is and is not dated or ugly.

Buildings still standing that are in this picture: Central Methodist and St. John's Episcopal churches up Woodward and the Bagley Fountain [[although not in the same spot). Any others?