Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2015.
It’s not always easy to see history in a cityscape where people are always showing off the latest vehicles and popular trends in appearance.
But sometimes a particular window on the past opens up and what seems current is suddenly cast into a perspective that reveals a bygone era.
At first glance it would seem that these two views of Shelby have nothing in common, but with some careful scrutiny there are a couple clues that both images capture the very same piece of streetscape:
1) Take a look at the right side of the Now picture to find the white protruding window on the second floor — and you’ll see it is the same window from 100 years ago.
2) Behind that window — receding into the distance — there are some building facades that are more or less corresponding between Then and Now, but unquestionably that rise in Main Street at the tracks has a distinctive shape in the city scene that isn’t likely to ever change.
