I decided to take a couple of the Orange County Archives' newly-acquired B.F. Conoway photos of old Santa Ana and compare them to modern views. The shot above shows Fourth St., viewed from Bush St., on Decoration Day (Memorial Day) in 1891. The image below shows the same angle today. Only the Otis Building (which got a new facade in 1925) seems to show up in both. 
The next two photos show Fourth St. looking east from Sycamore: First in 1891...
...and again today. Once more, the Otis Building is the one identifiable landmark remaining. Some of the buildings just east of the Otis Building may still be standing today, but received new facades over the years -- most notably after the 1933 earthquake.
I realized the other day that I've been (somewhat randomly) shooting photos of Downtown Santa Ana's historic architecture for about seven years now. Sitting at home with a cold/flu bug, I decided to start compiling these into a Flickr set, so people could take a virtual tour of the area. Hopefully, the virtual tour will inspire some folks to get out and do some actual boots-on-the-ground tours.
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You can see the photos at Historic Downtown Santa Ana. Your comments are definitely welcomed!.As I find time, I will try to add more photos to this set and fill it in a bit. So far, the set has 95 photos in it, which barely scratches the surface. I still have lots more old images to round up.
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Also, there are plenty of sites I haven't gotten around to photographing at all yet -- Which gives me a great excuse to stretch my legs at lunchtime.
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Speaking of Flickr, our Orange County History Flickr group topped 200 members at the New Year and is now up to 210, with our latest initiates adding some really amazing images. I am constantly tempted to steal their photos and re-post them here.
