Different styles, different crowds, different prices, same place: At least, the same place for me because I usually head to the same attractions that I’ve been enjoying since I was a kid. I was nominated by family back east coming out to Disneyland to go down there again for the Labor Day Holiday. It didn’t take much urging, I still love that place, crowds and all. I found a collection of color photographs on the internet taken at Disneyland in 1958. Though they weren’t always the best quality, I decided later that they’d be interesting to do modern updates of. I went back to the internet to find the website and give them the credit for the vintage pictures I downloaded, but I haven’t been able to find it again. They may have all been taken by the same photographer, I’ll update the due honors of the photos source as soon as I find the site again. (Thumbnail images)
Sleeping Beauty Castle; probably older than most of the buildings in Downtown San Francisco now, but not showing her age.
When you enter the park today you still have two tunnels under the Wald Disney Railroad track to take, left or right. There are more trees in Disneyland today than 1958, and this one at the right tunnel was probably transplanted, if it’s real. Right, Tony?
A big difference “where the rubber meets the road” in the Tomorrowland Autopia since 1958.
The entrance to Adventureland: I’ve seen older pictures of the park when the crowds were modest, but !this might be the only picture of Disneyland I’ve seen with nobody in it! Oh, wait, there was one person. That must have been a lonely day for him!
No lines and much lower prices for fast food back then. What is that, a spy on the right?
Fast food diners in 1958 and 2025: That lady with the sunglasses in the vintage picture looks so bored. That’s not allowed in Disneyland!
Not sure if the Dumbo’s get as high off the ground in Fantasyland today. They didn’t while I was watching.
There have been a lot of remodeling changes in Fantasyland, like here at Peter Pan’s Flight.
Main Street Square and the Train Station: I imagine that’s the same car; I mean, you don’t see a lot of them around.
The Tom Sawyer Island dock for the rafts, with Fort Wilderness in the background: The original Fort Wilderness was demolished in 2007 and a smaller one was rebuilt, but is closed to the public now.
The Pontoon and Suspension Bridges on Tom Sawyer Island: Not as novel today, I guess.
Fishing on a dock at Tom Sawyer Island, with the Mark Twain Riverboat in the background. They actually stocked this portion of the Rivers of America with catfish, bluegill, and trout, and visitors could fish of the Huckleberry Finn Fishing Pier with make-shift fishing poles and worms. The attraction lasted from 1956 to 1965.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
Melaleuca quinquenervia, or cajeput. It is real, and is probably the same tree that was in the old picture. They can grow fast with irrigation. The tree over the entrance to Adventureland is an African tulip tree, Spathodea campanulata, which is still quite rare, even in the region of Los Angeles County and Orange County. I have a cultivar here that blooms yellow, which is even more rare (but may not survive here). Disneyland was a place where students of horticulture toured the landscapes to see how meticulously they are maintained. All the work there is done at night.