We are looking west above Auburn, California, at the turn of the 20th Century. While automobiles existed, they were not common at this time, and the main mode of transportation was the horse and wagon. The canyon we see at right is known as Auburn Ravine and today is buried under Interstate 80. With that in mind, we can see the original location of the Auburn Volunteer Fire Department building, with stripes, on the far right. That building was saved and now sits at its new location.
At far left we can see the old post office building and the small gazebo building that held a drinking fountain. At the top of the hill, sit’s the white Snowden House.
In the above Google Earth photo, we can see the modern-day view of the same location. The stripped firehouse building now sits in the new location. Interstate 80 dominates the right side of the view. The Snowden House still stands at the top of the hill. The railroad trestle crossing the interstate was built by Southern Pacific in 1909 and therefore does not show up in the earlier photo.