Then and now: 50 years of change in SLT
My little box of 35mm slides is dated November 1965, the same month when the city of South Lake Tahoe was incorporated.
Here is sampling of how things have changed in 50 years:
Highway 50 and Park Avenue in 1965. Photos/Bill Kingman
Highway 50 and Park Avenue in 2015.
Caltrans no longer positions stoplight islands in the center of the pavement in snow country.
Raley’s at Stateline in 1965.
The center was remodeled more than a decade ago.
Raley’s Drug Center & Supermarket and neighboring Lawrence’s Department Store in the Crescent V Center were the anchors in 1965. Today, Raley’s and neighboring Sports LTD in the Village Center are two of the main stores.
The foreground building until recently was Teaz & Pleaz. Previously it has been a drive-up dairy, The Finishing Touch lighting store, The Dead Head, and others. Meeks Lumber is still there.
Sonora Avenue used to connect to Highway 50 about where I stood to snap this photo; that intersection is now covered by Postmarc. Across the highway, redevelopment replaced the pictured businesses with the Linear Park, which also fronts Tahoe Meadows.
The intersection of Highway 50 at Lodi Avenue had three gas stations: The 76 site is now parking for Magic Carpet Golf; the Standard station (behind in photo) across Lodi was replaced by the two-story office building; the third gas station diagonally across the highway still exists.
Meanwhile, some other locations are still easily recognized from 1965:
The American Legion Hall where Jim Burgett’s band played. The large auditorium (left in photo) collapsed under snow load just hours before a scheduled teen-age dance and was not re-built.
The Bijou Center where mostly names and color schemes have changed.
The landmark Outdoorsman building, later housing Long’s, and now Grocery Outlet. The foreground empty lot is today’s Motel 6 site.
— Bill Kingman