Jay Langhurst - Recreating a 1907 panoramic picture

Recreating a 1907 panoramic picture

I began this project while looking through a fascinating directory of old panoramic photos that the Library of Congress placed on the Internet, in a section titled Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs 1851-1991 which covers about 4,000 photographs. Small, medium and large images of the prints are available online, and the index is organized by state and city. You can search for your home town or go to the offical page for the panoramic I recreated by choosing Iowa--Burlington from this page.
In 1907, F. J. Bandholtz, a resident of Des Moines, Iowa took a panoramic at the intersection of Main and Jefferson in Burlington, Iowa. After examing the image over the Internet using the Library of Congress site, I determined that the picture was taken from a position in the middle of Jefferson street on the southeast side of Main street, facing northwest. To make it more clear, here's a map.

A map of the location and rough area of the panoramic picture
A map of the location and
rough area of the panoramic picture

So, in order to take a new panoramic picture, I had to find a time where I could stand in the middle of a street without being run over, so I took the new picture early one Sunday morning. Below are the two images, the first is the 1907 image, and the second is the 1998 image with a sepia tint. The only building that I can determine to be somewhat the same as the 1907 period is the fully visible building on the left, notice the second story windows and decorative stonework between the stories. Also, the general electric pole configuration is somewhat similar.

The 1907 panoramic picture

The 1998 panoramic picture