I work at Gateway Center, and was just waiting for a bus at this intersection (Fifth and Liberty) yesterday afternoon. Wish I could step back in time into this world. Working in the Wabash building rather than Gateway IV seems infinitely more appealing. The buildings to Diamond Bank's left are still there too - reincarnated as a Jimmy John's and a Wendy's.

Blue Tag Tobies are cheap cigars. It's not the name of a store. Toby was slang for tobacco. I think there was a cigar manufacturing company called Blue Tag, but Google tells me the Gov't required tobacco to be identified by grade with a blue tag as kind of a "seal of approval."

It would make a great name for a musical group.

Well I don't like to contradict, but I don't think many late 1950s beatniks were wandering around in knickers. The jacket and cap works nicely, though.

reminds me of the old song, "There's a pawn shop, on a corner, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."

This guy seems to be dressed surprisingly modern for the time. He looks like he could be a late 1950s beatnik instead of someone wandering around in 1909.

The Wabash Terminal was demolished in the 1950s. It burned in 1946 and was pretty much left in ruins till the site was cleared to make way for the Gateway Center complex.

The 1909 view is much more interesting and visually pleasing, horse apples notwithstanding. tbvintage did a good job of capturing almost the same 1909 picture view on Google Maps in today's world.

I am always amazed at the great technological change that took place in the early part of the last century. This picture taken in Pittsburg in 1909 shows the streets are full of horse drawn vehicles. Yet in the picture of Forbes Field taken in 1912, shown earlier, we see the automobiles lined up outside the stadium. What a drastic change in just three years.

[There are also quite a few cars in this photo. - Dave]

Are we talking bread or whiskey here?

I'd definitely buy my ER from the THING Co. I always wish the field of view was a little wider.

[It's the XYZ Clothing Co. - Dave]

• Blue Tag Tobies
• Dimling Bros. German Kitchen
• Diamond National Bank
• Doctor Faulkner
• Genuine Rye
• Kingsbacher Bros. Diamonds & Watches
• Monroe Lumber
• Prudential
• Skinner Engine Co. Engines and Boilers.
• W.H. & L. Huck
• Wabash Freight Station
• Wallace Optical Co.

Not much has changed for the Diamond Building and the one to the right of it. However, that beautiful domed building has been replaced by modern glass skyscrapers.

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This building is still there, but almost everything around it has changed. I'll take a walk over there today and snap a picture.