Columbia Center

Yes, that is a toilet with a tripod leg in the foreground. This is just one of many examples of our dedication to the project (actually, the restroom was spotless and preferable to some of our previous locations). The photo for this location required us to shoot from a small, second story restroom at the Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center.

South Fredonia

While much of the neighborhood just south of downtown has changed drastically, we were pleased to find this unassuming house still standing in its original location. The historical photo was taken from the middle of South Fredonia St. facing north. We experienced a slight alignment problem with the porch between the original and our recreated photo. It seems that the house is sitting at a higher elevation than it was in 1909. We theorized that this could be due to the fact that all the other houses closer to Banita creek were condemned in the 1970's due to flooding.  This house may have been spared because they were able to raise it up several feet.

Downtown Festival

Our goal for this location was to recreate a photo of a downtown fair taken in 1910. The original photo was shot from the second floor of the building on the northeast corner of Main and Church. The Blueberry Festival provided the perfect opportunity to capture a contemporary version of the original scene.


We encountered one minor, yet terrifying, obstacle in the process. That's not a staircase, it's termites holding hands. Neither words nor photographs can adequately express how jacked up these stairs were. I only walked up them because I was afraid the girls would make fun of me. On the bright side, skydiving, bungee jumping, and snake charming now seem trivial.

Hitchcock's Nightmare

We arrived at the two-story building on the southwest corner of Main Street and Pecan Street to recreate a photo of the north side of the downtown square and Main Street.  We had been notified that there were "some" dead birds in the building.  What we saw when the doors were opened was enough to make me consider faking an illness and going home for the day.

I wondered, "How could a creature be so stupid to enter a building and not be able to find a way out?"  Then I remembered the first time I went to an IKEA...

Behind Main Street

Some images just work.  We used details on the roof line to make a perfect match with this photograph.  It is interesting to see what went on behind the scenes.  This is an alleyway north of Main Street.  Most of the historical photos of downtown we have seen show a very tidy appearance, this view of the back of the buildings shows a different side of historic Nac.

Old Stone Fort

The rain today finally let up about the time that we were scheduled to head downtown. A reporter from the Daily Sentinel met us there, and so did Hardy Merideth, the official photographer for the University. The heat was not nearly as bad as it had been, so they days work was much more enjoyable.

Our goal this time out was to go to where the Old Stone Fort used to stand to make a new photograph. That's right, I said used to be. The fort now stands on the campus of SFA, supposedly disallowing any unaware freshman who sets foot inside from graduating. The corner the fort is at now is actually the third location that it has been moved to, and hopefully the last. It was first built in the heart of downtown, but in 1903 it was disassembled and reconstructed somewhere near the Old Nacogdoches University Building, which is now on the campus of Thomas J. Rusk Middle School. After a short time there, it was moved to SFA.

Our vantage point was limited by the fact that at some point in the past someone decided to just go ahead and build a Regions Bank right in our way. The fort itself used to stick out much farther into Main Street than does the current Commercial Bank. The original photographer might have taken this shot straight on, but we had to employ some fancy-schmancy view camera tricks to get everything lined up. We should be developing the film any day now.

Banita Hotel

This location was easy to find.  In fact we had walked past it several times when we were looking for the other bridge over Banita Creek.