Exploring Colorado History on Historypin

Got History?

I’ve just discovered Historypin–a new(ish) Google partnership–full of historic photographs of buildings, people and locales all over the world. The collection is searchable by both location and time. And the really, really fun part? Many of the images are linked to Google’s Street View, so that you can view an historic photograph overlaid on a modern day street view.

Downtown Denver street scene, 16th and Stout, 1896 by Darrell Houghton

The site relies on user contributions, and some areas have more photographs than others. For Colorado Springs, there are just 20-some images so far. But the entire site has more than 100,000 photos, stories and clips, including many throughout the state of Colorado.

To get you started: Search for Colorado Springs images and you can see a late 1800’s souvenir photo showing visitors to Seven Falls, complete with the mules they rode and an 1899 image of Nikola Tesla’s lab. Go through Denver’s inventory and you’ll find a 1940’s view of 16^th Street that lets you compare now and then with an accompanying modern Street View image. And, look near Carbondale to see a black and white image of a Depression-era potato farmer in his hat and overalls. Or check out the 1926 dedication of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bethune, an image of the Ludlow Monument from the early 1900s, children playing in the Navajo River circa depression era and much more.