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“Nothing Here Survived To The Present Day”: 30 Of The Most Spectacular Examples Of Architecture, As Shared On This Group (New Pics)
There have been countless architectural gems built over centuries that people have had the chance to admire. Everything from authentic houses of worship to spectacular bridges, stations, and entire old towns, among other structures, have been a mesmerizing sight for their eyes at some point throughout history. Unfortunately, quite a few buildings like these weren’t able to stand the test of time and can now only be admired in photographs.
We have gathered some of such photographs on this list for you to marvel at. They were shared by the ‘Lost Architecture’ community—“a subreddit devoted to images and discussion of interesting buildings that no longer exist,” as their own description reads. It covers all sorts of impressive structures that were destroyed by wars and other calamities, sadly leaving us with not much more than a picture of what it once was.
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#1
San Francisco’s Cliff House 1896–1907
Rob Chapman 3 years ago
This is the second Cliff House. The first version was built in 1863 and destroyed in a fire in 1894. The version pictured above was also destroyed by fire, in 1907. The current Cliff House was built in 1909 (in a neo-classical style), was heavily modified into a "roadhouse" in 1949, then restored to it's 1909 appearance in 2004. The last restaurant/bar, which had opened in the building in 1973, permanently closed on December 31, 2020, and the Cliff House has remained vacant ever since.
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#2
Skete Of All Saints, Ukraine (Largest Wooden Church In Ukraine, Burned Down 2022)
#3
Neue Elbbrücke Bridge From 1887-1959 In Hamburg, Germany
The Original Bruno 3 years ago
The bridge is still there, but the towers were removed when the bridge was widened.
#4
St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol, England. Built In The Late 14th Century As A Merchant's House, Destroyed In The Bristol Blitz In 1940
#5
Salzhaus And Haus Frauenstein. Built Around 1600 In Frankfurt, Germany. Both Destroyed In 1944 By An Raf Raid
Take me to dinner first 3 years ago
slighly unsettling, kinda looks like is gonna fall to the right
#6
Cathedral Of Christ The Saviour, Located In Borki, Near Kharkiv In The Russian Empire (Modern-Day Kharkiv, Ukraine). Pictured In 1894. It Was Destroyed During The Second World War
#7
Los Angeles In 1918, Nothing Here Survived To The Present Day
#8
The Old Times Square. (1904)
#9
Graham House, West Vancouver, Canada, Designed By Arthur Erickson In 1962, Demolished In 2007
The Original Bruno 3 years ago
The house was destroyed to make room for a larger one. Flat roofs and rainforests don't mix. (What is it with mid-20th century architects and flat roofs? Just stop it!)
#10
The Baths Of Diocletian, 298 Ad. A Couple Of Walls Are Left, Still Impressive
#11
Park Hotel Bremen, Bremen, Germany. Built In 1890 And Was Lost To A Fire In 1907
Nicole Weymann 3 years ago
Small time window there. Very similar to the cliff house in San Francisco (currently #1) in that way.
#12
Świnoujście/Swinemünde Pier, Poland (Formerly Germany). The Place Existed Between 1890s And 1920s
#13
Pennsylvania Station, New York City, Ca 1910
Bronze Republic 3 years ago (edited)
While its destruction was sad, it actually saved hundreds of other cultural heritage buildings due to the public outcry of it being demolished. It lead to the creation of modern historial preservation in the US. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(1910%E2%80%931963)
#14
1890 Sioux City Corn Palace, Iowa. From 1887 To 1891, Sioux Cityans Celebrated The Autumn Harvest With A Festival Featuring The Construction Of A Large Building In Downtown Called A Corn Palace Covered In Corn And Other Grains
David 3 years ago
I thought this rang a bell. There is a corn palace in sout dakota that still exists. I saw signs for it when I drove to SD to see Mt. Rushmore. Didn't actually go to the building. "Built in 1892 in Mitchell, South Dakota, the Corn Palace was created to dramatically display the products of the harvest of South Dakota's farmers, in murals on the outside of the building. The murals are made from thousands of bushels of corn and other grains and grasses such as wild oats, rye, straw, and wheat."
#15
Ancient Egyptian Fortress Of Buhen - Lost To The Aswan Dam (Lake Nasser)
#16
A Digital Reconstruction Of Old St. Paul's Cathedral, Which Was Located In London, England. Completed In 1314, It Was Destroyed In The 1666 Great Fire Of London. The Current Cathedral With Its Iconic Dome Was Built Between 1675 And 1710
#17
1905 Photo Of The Park Avenue Hotel (A.k.a. Working Women's Hotel) At 32nd And Park Avenue In New York City. Opened In 1878, Demolished In 1925. (Partial Ai Colorization)
The Original Bruno 3 years ago
Gorgeous. Including the hilariously inaccurate, vaguely American flag.
#18
Helmond, The Netherlands (Demolished In 2019 For A Big Appartement Block)
Nicole Weymann 3 years ago
And here I thought (or hoped) we were done with this nonsense of needlessly destroying these architectural witnesses of the centuries - it doesn't look in disrepair or anything.
#19
Base Of The Spire, Seen From The Southwest, Notre-Dame De Paris, 2018
Mariele Scherzinger 3 years ago
Notre Dame was under reconstruction when the fire broke out. In fact, the fire started in the rafters of the scaffold. (I remember reading that it probably started because of a recklessly discarded cigarette butt). Anyway, many of the statues had been taken down for cleaning, so by lucky coincidence, they were not affectd by the fire.
#20
Park Terrace, Duluth, Minnesota. Built In 1890 And Demolished In 1936
#21
Leaning Tower Of Zaragoza "Torre Nueva"(1504-1892)
#22
Steele High School, Dayton, Ohio. Built In 1894, Demolished For A Parking Garage In 1955
#23
Galloway's Furniture Store, Sarasota, Florida, Designed By Victor Lundy In 1959. Partially Demolished In The 1970s, Some Of The Structure Still Survives Within A Nondescript Exterior
Laughing otter 3 years ago
I knew Victor Lundy (friend of my parents) and his buildings were notorious for not aging well. He was one of those architects who get so enthralled by their concepts that they completely overlook the fact that people will need to use the building.
#24
Color Photo Of Penn Station In 1963 Just Prior To Demolition
#25
The Old Tripe House, Digbeth, Birmingham, U.k. (1533-1893)
#26
Everything In This Photo Was Destroyed - Skopje, North Macedonia Before The 1963 Earthquake
#27
Saratoga Hotel In Havana, Cuba. Destroyed By A Gas Explosion
#28
Paleis Voor Volksvlijt, Amsterdam. Finished Building 1864, Burned Down 1929
#29
Church In La Jalca, Peru. Built In 1538, Collapsed In An Earthquake
#30
National Palace Of Haiti, 1912-2010, Severely Damaged By The 2010 Haitian Earthquake And Demolished In 2012
#31
Oklahoma City State Capitol Bank Built In 1962, Complete With A Conversation Pit Elevator! Since Remodeled
#32
Broadwater Natatorium, Helena, 1889. 100 Heated Changing Rooms, Electricity, Stained Glass Rose Windows. Demolished 1946
Nicole Weymann 3 years ago
Natatorium: indoor swimming pool, I guess? Boy, am I learning fancy English architectural speak.
#33
Venice, California Before The Canals Were Filled In And The Buildings Were Demolished, 1906
#34
The Chicago Federal Building (1898-1965)
#35
Old City Hall Post Office, NYC. 1880-1938
#36
Pittsburgh Was Once One Of The Most Beautiful Cities Not Only In The Us, But In The World. Most Of It Was Demolished
The Original Bruno 3 years ago
Pittsburgh IS still a beautiful city. Surrounded by hills and suspension bridges, the downtown of Pittsburgh features an amazingly complex assortment of skyscrapers crammed into a narrow triangle where two rivers join to form the Ohio River. Short of mega-cities like New York and London, I don't think you can possibly find more fascinating architecture per square mile as you can in Pittsburgh.
#37
The Beach Hotel, Galveston, Tx. Built In 1882 And Destroyed By A Mysterious Fire In 1898
The Original Bruno 3 years ago
Would've been destroyed in 1900 by the horrific hurricane which erased Galveston off the map. Thousands upon thousands of people died. The focus of the metro area shifted inland to Houston, whereas Galveston had been the larger city. Today, Galveston does have some gorgeous architecture!
#38
Mount Adams Incline, Cincinnati, Oh (1872–1948)
#39
One Of Philadelphias Most Gorgeous Corners In The Year Of 1900, Broad Street Station. (Razed In 50s)
Kathryn Baylis 3 years ago (edited)
Man, people in the the fifties and sixties were just chomping at the bit to ignore history and continuity, and just bulldozed beautiful old buildings w***y-nilly, to put up the FUGLIEST concrete boxes you ever saw, weren’t they? With zero regard for historic value, significance, art, beauty, all that is good and keeps us aligned with our past. My parents’ generation, the one that calls itself the “greatest generation”. Except for getting drafted on the winning side during WWII and managing to survive, they weren’t really all that great at most other things. They polluted our rivers, their factories belched smoke and polluted our air, they threw their trash out their car windows, they created the plastics industry, they drove the most gas guzzling cars and filled them with leaded gas so that anyone born before leaded gas was taken off the market now has traces of lead in their lungs from breathing in the exhaust. They were also the ones in the seventies, who had made it into the executive suite, and threw away every single scientific study that proved their company’s product was environmentally unsound and dangerous, was using up dwindling necessary resources, was totally upsetting ecosystems, was killing people. And they didn’t care, they didn’t try to make their products any cleaner, any less impactful, any less dangerous. They’re the generation who ramped up climate change and kept making it worse instead of trying to clean their messes up. Yeah, THAT generation. I’m 62, and yes, my generation f****d up the economy more than once, and contributed to climate change, though we were too young initially to be making the rules. When we got older, we started being more aware, and at least some of us try to live cleaner lives. It’s going to be the generation entering adulthood now and for the next few decades who will be doing the heavy lifting, cleaning up their parents’, grandparents’, great-grandparents’, and great-great-grandparents’ enormous and dangerous messes. We dropped the ball. I hope they take it, run with it, and finally do what we said we would do, but failed.
#41
Denver 1880s: None Of The Buildings In This Photo Have Survived To The Present Day
PunnyPanda 3 years ago
Not true! Tivoli Brewery still stands and is a brewery (on the MSU campus) once again!
#42
The Toy Building Was Constructed In 1913, And Anchored Milwaukee's Small Chinatown Community, The Building Hosted A Restaurant And A Theater, But Was Demolished In 1946
Marla Singer 3 years ago
Milwaukee has a charming mix of old, surviving buildings, and new beautiful buildings.
#43
City Hall Of Galveston, Texas. Built In 1888 And Demolished In 1966
#44
Monroe Palace In Rio De Janeiro. Built In 1906 And Destroyed In 1976
#45
Culver House In St. Louis. Demolished 7/19/22 For Symphony Hall Expansion
#46
Palace Theater, Long Beach, Ca: Opened In 1916 And Demolished In The Late 1980s
Brent Echols 3 years ago
Long Beach still has a lot of cool, beautiful architecture. And an area called Naples that still has canals
#47
Prentice Women's Hospital In Chicago
#48
Great Ape House, Kansas City Zoo 1966-2015
#49
The General Motors Pavilion At The 1964 New York World's Fair, Aka 'Futurama,' Also The Source Of The Name Matt Groening Gave His Show From Visiting The Futuristic Attraction As A Kid. Torn Down After The Fair Ended, 1965
Robert Trebor 3 years ago
Most of the buildings were taken down. A few survived. There is one that has a model of New York City in it, updated from time to time.
#50
Trinity Episcopal Church. Washington, Dc. (1851-1936)
#52
Palast Der Republik, Berlin. Demolished In 2008 Due To Asbestos
The Dark Sun 3 years ago
People called it Erich (Honecker)'s Lampenladen (Erich's Lamp Store) because of the gazillion lamps inside
#53
Transgas Building, Prague (Built 1978, Demolished 2020)
The Original Bruno 3 years ago
Wow! Brutalist Socialist architecture that's actually SORT of neat looking (depending on the context)!
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What do you think ?
Nea 3 years ago
This post was particularly painful for me. I am obsessed with old architecture from across the world. This list doesnt only make me sad about what we have lost but also what all can soon be lost in future :(
Agfox 3 years ago
Melbourne, Australia, my home city, had many wonderful architectural buildings that were demolished in order to 'modernise' the city prior to the 1956 Olympic Games. These were the Fish Markets, built in 1890 to complement the style of the nearby Flinders Street railway station. They were replaced at the time by a car park Hish-marke...fbb656.jpg 
Briana Kessler 3 years ago
Architecture has really gone downhill. Instead of awe inspiring things of beauty, we now have identical moden blocks with no character or charm.
D-m Keilman 3 years ago
The Forestry building in Portland should be listed too. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/world-largest-log-cabin-portland/
Nea 3 years ago
This post was particularly painful for me. I am obsessed with old architecture from across the world. This list doesnt only make me sad about what we have lost but also what all can soon be lost in future :(
Agfox 3 years ago
Melbourne, Australia, my home city, had many wonderful architectural buildings that were demolished in order to 'modernise' the city prior to the 1956 Olympic Games. These were the Fish Markets, built in 1890 to complement the style of the nearby Flinders Street railway station. They were replaced at the time by a car park Hish-marke...fbb656.jpg
Briana Kessler 3 years ago
Architecture has really gone downhill. Instead of awe inspiring things of beauty, we now have identical moden blocks with no character or charm.
D-m Keilman 3 years ago
The Forestry building in Portland should be listed too. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/world-largest-log-cabin-portland/
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