You all may enjoy perusing the blogs of Brian Hsu. They have a trove of before and after comparisons just like these with historical descriptions underneath.
Brian Goes to Town is mostly images from Philadelphia with some other cities mixed in. He ended it a couple of years ago after moving out of town.
His new blog
Urban Diachrony does the same thing for Los Angeles.
WARNING: This site is a good way to waste five or six hours without realizing it.
An example:
market street west of 11th
