Built in 1880, the Continental Palace, was known simply as "The Continental". It's veranda lounge, open to the street, was the gathering place for the French colons where they sipped Citron Pressé, Dubonnet and Pastis de Marseille under the high ceiling with slowly rotating fans.

By early 1965, when this photo was taken, it had become a hangout for journalists, American expatriate businessmen and military contractors. The beverages of choice had changed to scotch, gin and tonic and Biere Larue.

Sitting there in the late afternoon one could see the comings and goings of the International Control Commission, the ineffectual bunch supervising the 1954 armistice agreement. All the hustle and bustle of Saigon traffic, street vendors and strolling pedestrians was there to view. 

Photo from Wikipedia

In the 1960s French of Corsican descent continued to operate many of Saigon's hotels and restaurants. 

The Continental is now government owned but still looks much the same, though the open terrace is gone. Ground floor areas are now glass enclosed and the hotel entrance moved. While much of the city is changing as old colonial buildings are torn down, the hotel retains its Old Saigon appearance with the stucco colored exterior and red tile roof. 

Continental Palace and Rue Catinat in an Old Postcard Photo

French military officers at the Continental in early 1950s

Night curfew in 1964

Headed for Hong Kong in August of 1968. My family and I are in the crowd waiting to board the plane. On this trip Cathay Pacific Airways made an unexpected stop at Phnom Penh, where everyone had to get off and wait in the departure lounge for half an hour before reboarding.

The aircraft was a Convair 880, a four engine jet that was reputed to have been the fastest commercial airliner built in the US. An Air Vietnam DC-3 is parked behind the line of passengers.

Above photo by John Wisely.

On July 1, 1971 I boarded Pan American flight 841 in Honolulu, bound for Saigon and a new job, with my wife, two kids and six pieces of luggage. 

Previously flown using a Boeing 707 aircraft, this was the first flight on this route using the then new B747. The daily flight at that time was routed San Francisco, Honolulu, Guam, Manila, Saigon and Singapore, with the plane returning trans-pacific as Pan Am flight 842.

Once airborne after refueling at Guam the plane suffered a landing gear problem. The pilot dumped fuel and returned to Guam where the problem was fixed and after several hours and we continued on our journey via Manila. Our arrival at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport was very late. We made our way to the Majestic Hotel for some much needed rest.

Photo from Wikipedia

Today a  24 story tower addition dwarfs the original Caravelle and a luxury shopping center replaced the block containing the Eden apartments building, shops and cinema.

The center median on Le Loi street fronting Lam Son square was a motor scooter parking lot in 1965. The vehicle of choice at the time was a Lambretta or Vespa. A year or two later Japanese scooters and motorbikes started to appear on Saigon's streets. Today Honda is a generic term for any motorcycle.

Partially hidden at  the right is the TAX building at the corner of Le Loi and Nguyen Hue. It was once a department store called Grands Magasins Charner, built in 1924. It is now gone, replaced with a 43 story skyscraper.

Vessels loading and unloading along the river in 1972. The defunct My Canh floating restaurant was the scene of a deadly 1965 sapper attack. Behind it is the Messageries Maritimes (MM) building, now the Ho Chi Minh Museum. A WW II vintage victory ship unloads militiary cargo at the MM docks.

 Below are two old postcard images of the Saigon riverfront.

The Messageries Maritimes Building and Adjacent Wharf

Steamship Departing in an Old Postcard Photo

The Eden Cinema is seen near the center of this March 1965 photo. To the left is the Eden apartment building. A shopping arcade called the Passage Eden led from the street at bottom left toward the cinema. This entire square block was razed in 2010, replaced with a monolithic multistory upscale shopping mall known as Takashimaya Saigon Center.

A coworker had an apartment on an upper floor in the Eden building with windows facing Le Loi street. It was served by an old fashioned open cage elevator.

The tall building at center right is the Rex Hotel, then used by the US military as officers quarters. Oddly, it also contained a movie theater, the Rex Cinema, where in 1965 I watched a John Wayne movie dubbed into French with Vietnamese, Chinese and English subtitles. The officers club was on the open air balcony near the top. The Rex is still there and the "O club" is now the hotel bar and restaurant.  

Below is a postcard photo from the entreprises-coloniales.fr website looking North on Tu Do street. The Eden Apartment building is on the left. Photo looks to have been taken from the Caravelle Hotel. While the postcard was mailed in 1963 the photo is likely from 1959 or 1960.

This is the north side of Nguyen Van Thinh Street just east of Tu Do as it appeared in early 1965. Bars, massage parlors, shops, little restaurants, taxis and street vendors. The neon sign at left summons customers to the Rossignol (Nightingale) Bar. A modern concrete structure, likely a hotel, sits amidst old shop houses with red tile roofs.This street is now named Mac Thi Buoi. 

The Saigon Palace hotel is seen here in 1965 at the corner of Tu Do and Ngo Duc Ke. This place has had several names, at one time it was Grand Hotel de la Rotonde. It's now known as the Grand Hotel.

Across the street is the former Saigon office of the Denis Frères steamship company. The building once housed the first American consulate in Indochina. In this photo the Cathay Pacific Airways office is at the corner.

Tu Do at it's intersection with Le Thanh Ton, in the center of Saigon, on a sleepy afternoon in March 1965. No street traffic and the park is nearly deserted. Soon the tamarind trees would be cut down to make the street wider. 

Photo taken from the Alfana Hotel, now gone.

Street sign, likely late 1950s.

On a sleepy afternoon in early 1965 the shops along Tu Do are closed. The real estate office, tailor, bars, maternity wear shop and store selling imported electronics will open again later. The bar at the left is named La Boheme.  

This photo is looking up the street from the intersection with Ho Huan Nghiep. A German restaurant is now located at #34-36 behind the parked Chevrolet.

From a collection of photos taken in 1895 and 1896 by André Salles, here are some selected images of colonial Saigon. These seldom seen pictures from 9x12 cm glass negatives were only recently digitized by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Subjects include the market, botanical garden, transportation, river scenes and government buildings. Captions (in French) are from the descriptions written on the backs of the printed photos.

The first group of pictures are of the the old Saigon market (Cho Cu), then located between today's Ham Nghi Street and Nguyen Hue boulevard. This real estate is now occupied by the curious looking  BITEXCO tower building.

Au Marché	Au Marché
Au Marché	Au Marché

Au Marché

Horse drawn vehicles and rickshaws appear in these Saigon street scenes. There is a  nearly deserted Boulevard Norodom and a lonely station stop on the Saigon-My Tho railway. An outdoor roadside restaurant looks much the ones seen today except for the coaches for hire parked outside.

Voiture malabare	Pousse-pousse
Boulevard Norodom	Halte de Luang-fu Ligne Saigon-My Tho

Saigon restaurant en plein air

 Some photos of government buildings. The post office, the Ministry of Justice, Governor's Residence and Hotel de l'Inspection. Also photos of the botantical garden and the cathedral.

La Poste	Palais de Justice
Palais du gouverneur général des colonies	En place pour le tour de l'inspection
L'inspection	L'inspection
Jardin de l'inspection, vue de l'intérieur	La Cathédrale

Au jardin botanique

The Saigon River is seen in several of the photos. There is an old sailing vessel converted into what looks like floating military housing, or perhaps a prison. The arroyo chinoise is seen with sampans and Messageries Maritimes steamer unloads its cargo.

Le ponton "Loire"	L'arroyo chinoise
La rivière devant la ville	Le quai pour les sampans

Quais de Saigon

Two LSTs (Landing Ship Tank) tied up at a dock fronting Bach Dang near the foot of Hai Ba Trung on a quiet afternoon in the spring of  1965. LST 808 is reported to have been a South Korean operated vessel as the original hull number 808 was sunk by a kamikaze torpedo in 1945. 

Note the nicely dressed family in identical outfits and the woman wearing an aoi dai. The ubiquitous Renault taxicabs zoom along while American 2 1/2 ton trucks haul incoming war materiel off to somewhere.

At that time all incoming freight was unloaded at the piers along the river in downtown Saigon. A year or two later military port operations moved to the newly constructed Newport facility upriver.