Living in Peru : your everyday companion

A friend of mine here in Lima, Jose Perochena, was showing me his collection of old photographs and postcards of various buildings and streets. It was amazing to see how these places used to look, and in some cases how much they had changed over the years. This gave me the idea to go back in time and try to take a new photograph from the same area or position that the old photographer had taken the photo. In some cases, it is impossible for me to do this so please forgive those variations. What follows is a pictorial essay with a brief written history of each of the “Then and Now” photos. This will be the first of several articles I will write, along with photos, so that you can see the change that the hands of time has brought to Lima.

These photos were taken from the start of Paseo Colon as it comes off of the Plaza Grau in Lima Center. It was once a beautiful tree lined boulevard with marble statuary dotted along the center of its route. The Paseo was built in 1901 so that Limeños could move from the city center and erect homes that were more in the French Style. The lions you see in the photo (taken sometime between the 1920s and 1930s) were originally in Chorrillos and moved here after the war with Chile. Later they were moved to stand in front of the Palace of Justice where they reside today.
In the new photograph you will note that only the stands on which the Lions stood remain. The beautiful Art Museum still stands on the left side of the photo, but many of the trees have been removed and some of the French Style homes destroyed and replaced with high-rise apartment buildings. One of the beautiful old French style homes is still in the foreground on the right. As you can tell, the beginning of this street is in bad need of repair. Fortunately the statues representing the four seasons and urns that were a part of the original photo still remain.
In the second set of photos we see the street or Pasaje that runs beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Barranco, the Bajada de Los Baños built in the 1870s as a way to get to the ocean. The older photo was taken sometime in the early 1900s, and as you can see there is quite a difference between it and the new one.

The buildings to the right are gone and have been replaced with a park that contains statues of Chabuca Granda, a criolla song writer, and Jose Antonio de Lavalle, who was reportedly her lover. The trees lining the Pasaje are now fully grown and due to the leaves, you can barely see the Bridge of Sighs, Puente de Los Suspiros. The Church of La Ermita, built to commemorate the miracle of Barranco, is visible in the new photo.
In the third set of photos, and the last for this first part of the series, we have photos of the Jr. De La Union with part of the Hotel Bolivar in the foreground, an unknown building that appears to have been a restaurant on the first floor with a hotel or apartments above it, and the Teatro Colon and Club National which border the Plaza San Martin. It was impossible for me to get the correct angle for this photo as the traffic and parked cars in this area are much worse now, as you can imagine. The older photo was also taken in the 1930s.
You will note that the Hotel Bolivar now has five floors instead of three. The unknown building has been converted to the Hostal San Martin and is in beautiful shape. The building that used to house the Teatro Colon has gone through a few changes. It is now three stories tall and the beautiful dome covering the round part of the building is gone. The stunning rococo façade in the theater is also gone and replaced with a simpler design. You can see in the older photo that a William Haines movie is playing, a well known actor from the 1920s and 30s. The National Club was established in the 1850s and is reportedly the oldest club in South America; the original building was replaced with this magnificent structure of marble in 1929.
Finally, if any of you who are reading these articles know some history of the photos I am featuring, please tell us about them in the comments section below or e-mail me with the information.

tags : then and now, rodney dodig, lima, photography

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5 Comments

# jcwong says :
7 October, 2009 [ 11:43 ]

Excellent! Excelent!! Excellent!! Great report and very ingenious way to show changes in Lima. Many people, including peruvians, are ignorant of Lima's recent past as a pretty city ("ciudad jardin" it used to be called).

Let's send the article to the mayor (the next one anyway), el paseo colon really needs to be saved before it's too late.
Congratulations
JCW

# says :
8 October, 2009 [ 04:02 ]

very nice article!!!

# Quantum says :
10 October, 2009 [ 07:19 ]

How about a coffee table book with images such as these?  Pictures of Centro and Miraflores alone would make the book a keeper..

# Alita Kelley (C.A.de Lomellini) says :
4 May, 2010 [ 10:30 ]

I quote from your comments on Barranco "...Chabuca Granda, a criolla song writer", and "Jose Antonio de Lavalle, who was reportedly her lover"

Is the difference in Lima or in me?  Is Chabuca Granda really thought of now as "a criolla song writer" and not as "the Chabuca Granda"?  On the other hand, to describe Lavalle as "her lover" I find  very much out of date in English!  

# christine weston says :
27 January, 2011 [ 09:18 ]

Hi,
While my son an architect, presently living in Europe, was studying his career in Peru, he came across a very old picture of Jirón de la Unión which he obtained a copy of from the Municipalidad de Lima.  If the photographer in question would like more photographs in black and white, he may obtain copies from there.
Hope to have helped towards this magnificent book.  The comment on a coffee table book is a very good idea!
Regards

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