View along the Ancha, looking toward Las Monjas, San Miguel de Allende, 1963 (Photographer Unknown)
Just fifty years ago, San Miguel was a very different place. Much of what we assume to be historic structures have been built since then, and some of them very recently. Here, in 1963, looking along Zacateros toward Las Monjas, from the corner of the roof of the Instituto on the Ancha, we see more or less the edge of the City. The “Flatiron” site, now an Italian restaurant, was the garden to a recently completed and unusually tall three-story residence. Nearly all the buildings you can see, apart from the grand houses around the Jardin just visible top right, are single storey. A thin ribbon of humble single-storey structures also ran along Canal, Insurgentes, and Pila Seca down toward the river, and along the Ancha to just behind where this photo was taken. Your nice little historic rental in San Antonio over on the left probably didn’t exist.