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Then and Now - Today, we’re comparing views looking on the west side of S. Washington St. in Tiffin, Ohio. The top pho...
10/15/2026

Then and Now - Today, we’re comparing views looking on the west side of S. Washington St. in Tiffin, Ohio. The top photo was taken in the 1930’s and we’re seeing several buildings that were there back then. The building on the left was at 202 S. Washington St. and the building in the middle (that was further back off the street) was 198 S. Washington St. and both of these buildings were residences. The building on the right was the Northern Ohio Maytag Co. and they sold washing machines in the 1930’s. These buildings were eventually demolished and this was where “Mike and Chuck’s Sohio Servicecenter” was located at 200 S. Washington St. The bottom photo is how this view looks today and now this is a city parking lot.

Then and Now – Today, we’re comparing views looking north along Riverside Drive in Tiffin, Ohio. We’re not sure when th...
10/14/2026

Then and Now – Today, we’re comparing views looking north along Riverside Drive in Tiffin, Ohio. We’re not sure when this photo was taken but it was before 1913 because the flood pretty much cleared away all of the vegetation from around this building. We also don’t know who these two men are, but the building behind them was the bottling department for the Tiffin Brewing Co. at 131 Riverside Drive. The Tiffin Brewing Co. was across the street and Ohio Law required that the b**r couldn’t be bottled in the same building that it’s brewed at. So, there was once a tunnel that went under the road and connected into this building. The bottom photo is how the view looks now. The old bottling department building was demolished long ago and today, the tall Tiffin Brewing Co. building is still there today and used by Scenic Studios.

Then and Now – While attending an auction last week in Tiffin, Ohio, we saw a great aerial photo that was taken of build...
10/13/2026

Then and Now – While attending an auction last week in Tiffin, Ohio, we saw a great aerial photo that was taken of buildings across the street from the auction. So today, we’re comparing views of that building. We understand that the top photo is a view of the former Harper Texaco Gas Station that was at 1741 OH-53 in Tiffin. We’re not sure when this photo was taken but there are some great vehicles parked around the buildings. The current bottom photo we got from Google Maps and we tried to get as close to an angle as possible to the vintage photo. Today, this business is the home of the Mountain Man Trading Post and we can see that there’s been a large addition made to the building.

Then and Now – Today, we’re comparing views looking north on Washington Street in Republic, Ohio. We found the top vint...
10/12/2026

Then and Now – Today, we’re comparing views looking north on Washington Street in Republic, Ohio. We found the top vintage photo on the wall at Smokies restaurant in Republic and written on the photo was the date 1943. We love those vintage autos and it looks like there was a filling station in front of the building on the right. The bottom photo is how this view looks today, 83 years later. Note – Smokies have lots of great old photos and memorabilia from Republic displayed in their restaurant.

Then and Now – Former Gibson Hotel Update - If you haven’t driven past the former Gibson Hotel at 162 S. Washington St...
10/11/2026

Then and Now – Former Gibson Hotel Update - If you haven’t driven past the former Gibson Hotel at 162 S. Washington St. in Tiffin, Ohio lately, we wanted to share an updated photo showing how the restoration work is going. Back in August, we posted the two photos on the left showing how this building looked in the early 1980’s (top left) and how it looked in August (bottom left). Then, over the last two months, there wasn’t much happening out front with most of their efforts happening in the rear and south side of the old hotel. But last week we noticed the brick on the façade had been cleaned. Then, we noticed the cornice along the roofline and the decorative window hoods had been painted black plus the brick was painted with what looks like a greenish-gray color. The photo on the right is how the front of the building looks right now and we’re amazed by the transformation. And once again, we’re eager to see the final product when it’s completed.

Then and Now – Today, we’re featuring another photo from the series of photos taken on September 27, 1968 during the fir...
10/10/2026

Then and Now – Today, we’re featuring another photo from the series of photos taken on September 27, 1968 during the fire at the Gold Bond store in Tiffin, Ohio. In today’s vintage photo (on top) we can see several onlookers trying to get a better view of the fire from the rear of 186 S. Washington St. which was Decker’s Wholesale location. The bottom photo is how this view looks today. Once again we’d like to thank Daun Yeagley who discovered these photos of the fire in a box of items purchased on eBay and sent them to us.

Then and Now – Today, we’re comparing another view looking north on S. Washington St. in Tiffin, Ohio towards the buildi...
10/09/2026

Then and Now – Today, we’re comparing another view looking north on S. Washington St. in Tiffin, Ohio towards the buildings near Madison Street. The top vintage photo was taken September 27, 1968 and through the smoke we can see the fire department down the street battling flames at the Gold Bond store. Yesterday’s photo was taken looking towards the west side of S. Washington St. and today we’re looking towards the east side. Here we can see the Masonic Temple, Tiffin Savings Bank and Decker’s Furniture.

We’d like to thank Daun Yeagley who discovered these few photos of the fire in a box of items purchased on eBay. After some internet research they found that these photos were taken in Tiffin, so they dropped these slides in the mail and sent them to us. The bottom photo is how this view looks today.

Then and Now – Today we’re comparing views looking north on S. Washington St. in Tiffin, Ohio towards the buildings near...
10/08/2026

Then and Now – Today we’re comparing views looking north on S. Washington St. in Tiffin, Ohio towards the buildings near Madison Street. The left vintage photo was taken September 27, 1968 and we’re seeing the fire department battling flames at the Gold Bond store. The fire department arrived at 11:47 am to the fire that originated at the back loading dock and then traveled up some balconies. There were 13 occupied apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors and all of them were gutted as also the furniture store. The fire also burned out several rooms in the unoccupied Gibson Hotel next door.

All of Tiffin’s fire units were on the scene while the Fostoria Fire Department manned the Tiffin Fire Station in case of another fire. It took most of the day to extinguish the blaze and the damage was guessed to be around$250,000. The City Loan business and restaurant in the Gibson Building had smoke damage.

There’s a lot to see in the vintage photo. There’s a fireman standing at the very top of the ladder shooting water into the building. On the left is a bright yellow Ohio Water truck in the street is a police officer and his cruiser. Then there’s that great neon Newman’s Music Store sign at 189 S. Washington Street. The photo on the right is how this view looks today. The old Gibson Hotel is currently undergoing a complete restoration, but if it wasn’t for our fire department back in 1968 stopping this fire, there may not have been a Gibson Hotel to restore.

Then and Now – This building was recently open for viewing during an auction of items, so we took advantage of seeing wh...
10/07/2026

Then and Now – This building was recently open for viewing during an auction of items, so we took advantage of seeing what the inside looked like. This building at 1 Main Street in Tiffin, Ohio was constructed in the teens as a home. We learned by looking through the city directories that in the early 1920’s, William Grill lived on the first floor and Dr. Paul Leahy lived upstairs.

On today’s vintage ad from a 1932 Tiffin newspaper, it announced that this was "Tiffin's New Funeral Home" operated by Charles and George Pahl. According to the Traunero Funeral Home website, "In 1931, Charles Pahl's son George joined him in the family business, and they moved the firm to 1 Main Street. The business was known as the Pahl Funeral Home. It continued at this address until 1951 when Mr. Pahl purchased the J.M. Naylor residence at 214 S. Monroe St."

The bottom photo is how the building looks today. We remember that at one time this was where the Salvation Army was located. At some time in history, the address of this building changed from 1 Main St. to 5 Main St.

Then and Now - Today we’re comparing views looking west on Frost Parkway St. in Tiffin, Ohio near the N. Washington St....
10/06/2026

Then and Now - Today we’re comparing views looking west on Frost Parkway St. in Tiffin, Ohio near the N. Washington St. intersection. The top vintage photo shows the parade that was probably coming from the railroad depot after the Spanish American War soldiers came home to Tiffin in 1899. What a great view of a small band providing music as young boys run ahead to lead the way! The bottom photo is how this view looks today. The large brick home in both photos is located at 149 Frost Parkway.

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