Ever look at old pictures of Milwaukee and think, "why did it look like a bigger city back then"? Happens to me all the time.

Of course, it's a sleight of hand, a trick of the eye. Like when you see photos of the old Pabst Building on the corner of Water and Wisconsin and it looks gigantic. It was quite a bit smaller than its replacement. But the Pabst felt more imposing in a landscape of often much lower buildings.

Then there's stuff like this.

Here's a postcard image – circa 1910 – of what was then called Fifth Avenue School (built in 1904 and designed by architects Uehling and Linde) and was later renamed Hayes Elementary (which has since moved to another nearby location), on South 10th Street, near Hayes Avenue:

And here's another from a few years later:

Look at that imposing school building, so stately and on such a big street.

Here's the building today, thanks to Google Street View:

Who shrunk the building? One can barely imagine how that 1918 scene ever took place on the small neighborhood street we see today.

At first, comparing the images, I thought that the sidewalk grade had risen dramatically over time, because the first floor windows seem so much higher in the old photos, especially looking at the populated 1918 image.

But looking at the basement windows it seems that while the grade change occurred it has note been drastically altered.

No, it's a trick of the camera format, somewhat, but it's also the trees, which give the scene a more intimate feel. And the bricking up of windows and the construction of that terrible entrance right out front haven't helped either. They've diminished the stature of the building, and tinkered with our perception of place.