5 Cool Vintage Boise Postcards Show How Much the City Has Changed

When we got married in 2018, family members who hadn’t been to Boise in at least eight years all said the same thing. “This doesn’t look anything like I remember it!” 

They weren’t wrong! Many of them hadn’t visited since 2010 when we’d just moved here fresh out of college. JUMP and the Simplot HQ building were a dirt parking lot. Today, they’re centerpieces of Downtown Boise. 

READ MORE: Vintage Postcards Show Off 10 Places That Vanished From Boise 

In fact, it had been so long since they’d been to Idaho that there was no Zions Bank Building on the corner of Eight & Main. It was still what Boiseans affectionately called the “Boise Hole.” Construction on the tower started in 2012. Two years later, they celebrated its completion with fireworks and a free concert from the Goo Goo Dolls.

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Love it or hate it, Boise’s gone through a huge population boom, especially within the last decade. Population growth naturally led to a lot of new construction in Downtown and other parts of the city. But one of the things we think is pretty cool is that there’s still a significant number of buildings that were built anywhere from 50 to 100 years ago still standing proud amongst more modern architecture. 

What’s even cooler is when you stumble across old images of these places that date back that far! We recently searched eBay for vintage postcards of Boise and saw some places and addresses that you’ll certainly recognize. We thought it might be fun to compare those images side-by-side with the images that appear on Google Maps today. 

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If you’re a bit of a history buff or you’re new to the Treasure Valley and are curious what the city looked like decades ago, enjoy these photos!