March 16, 2015, photo by Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer; historic photo courtesy of the Portland Public Library Special Collections & Archives

A November 1937 Press Herald photograph shows the Empire, one of the city’s first Chinese restaurants, at the corner of Congress Street and Forest Avenue in downtown Portland.

A March 16, 2015, photo of the same corner shows the restaurant’s latest incarnation, the Empire Chinese Kitchen, which opened in September 2013.

The Portland Room of the Portland Public Library is in the process of organizing and conserving the archival collection of original Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram and Evening Express photographic negatives — a major collection that spans from 1937 to 2005. Find more photos at www.pressherald.com/flashback/.

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