Vintage Los Angeles Postcards, Part 4
Here's PART 4 from Steve DeGaetano's scans of vintage Los Angeles postcards, purchased at the "One of a Kind" shop in New Orleans Square! As before, Steve included commentary; the card captions are in orange, and his comments are in blue.
LA-1: This card has no caption other than “Los Angeles Civic Center, Showing City Hall, State Building, Hall of Records, Hall of Justice.”
A-17: “Winter Scene in East Lake Park, Los Angeles, Cal.” Steve said, “Sure, rub it in”!
LA-18: “The World Famous Cocoanut Grove, Los Angeles Ambassador.”
LA-19 This card is nearly identical to LA-07, and appears to have been taken from the exact same location. The main differences from LA-07 are that it appears to be an actual color photograph from a later time. Notice that there are now fountains on the square. The Biltmore hotel is on the left, and still exists, I believe. (The Biltmore definitely still exists, if you ever have a chance to go inside, you should! Talk about "old world elegance").
LA-20s: This is the same card as shown in LA-04, except that I scanned it framed with the decorative cardstock frame that it came in when purchased from the One of a Kind shop.
LA-21: This is the back of the frame in LA-20.
LA-22: This has no caption other than “Ramona’s Marriage Place, Patio and Garden, San Diego, CA.”
My comments: This is the only one in the batch not featuring Los Angeles, but it’s related and is interesting because of its subject. Ramona was an 1884 serialized novel by Helen Hunt Jackson that completely romanticized Southern California’s Spanish past, turning it into a hazy, dream-like romantic myth of red tile roofs and bougainvillea, “a land of beauty and memory and sunny afternoons,” as historian Kevin Starr noted. “Well into the 1930s the Ramona myth remained one of the essential elements by which Southern California identified itself, to itself and to others” wrote Starr. This affinity for the romantic Spanish past led to the movement to restore California’s Catholic missions.
A huge THANKS to Steve DeGaetano for digging out his postcards, scanning them, and providing the card captions as well as his own commentary! I thought this was a fun series. I have binders full of random non-Disney postcards, perhaps I will delve into those someday for future posts.
11 comments:
The last postcard “Romona’s Marriage place” is in fact The Casa de Estudillo home in Old Town San Diego . The home was built in the late 1820’s and over time enlarged and updated. In the 1850’s a wooden bell tower was added to allow the sheriff , mayor or other dignitaries to make announcements to people bellow on the plaza ( Washington Square) the home became greatly dilapidated in the late 1800’s. It was completely saved and restored in 1917 by John Spreckels - the sugar magnate. The home became part of old town state park in 1968 and has had several restorations since and recently received its most accurate renovation yet and represents the home and gardens as it looked in the 1850-1872 period.
It actually is NOT Romonas Marriage place mentioned in the Jackson - Hunt Novel ( the actually marriage place is the Adobe chapel located several blocks south ) the estudillio house was marketed to tourist as the home in the novel in the teens , 20’s and 30’s when the romanticized - and Hollywood fictional early Spanish colonial period came in style . Anyone visiting old town San Diego should visit the home and its gardens - it’s a very rare surviving example of period architecture of which almost nothing still exists. I’m very familiar with the structure as I have built several variations of architectural models of the Estudillo home over the years.
My two favorite postcards today are the "Winter Scene in East Lake Park" and the Cocoanut Grove interior. (Interesting how they spell 'cocoanut' with an 'a'. I guess that used to be the common spelling?). The park scene retains its realistic appearance even with the added color.
Thanks, Steve, for sharing your collection with us. And thanks, Major for all the usual reasons. ;-p
Yay, one more vintage postcard post from Steve. For some reason, I thought the series ended with Part 3.
I never knew there were fountains in Pershing Square. I believe those were removed, even before the park's last renovation. And it looks like this was even after they had already excavated and built the parking structure below it, since we can see a car going down the ramp (far right) to the underground parking garage.
East Lake Park is called Lincoln Park, today. The name was changed back in 1917. The Selig Zoo (which has an interesting history with some of it's animals being used in early Hollywood films, including the first Tarzan movie in 1918) was located on the edge of the East Lake Park property. I have a newspaper clipping that is over 100 years old, that mentions my grandfather winning first prize in a baby contest, which was held at the park/zoo. Also, the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm used to be located across the street from the park.
Thank you, Steve and Major. Once again, I really enjoyed this series of posts!
Thanks for the comments, everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed this virtual tour through old Los Angeles and Southern California. Major, I hope we see some of your post card collection in future blog posts! Thanks for the additional information on Ramona's "Marriage Place," Mike C.
On a whim, I googled "Olde America Antiques," and they are apparently still in business in Bozeman, MT, still under the proprietorship of Jack and Susan Davis! I wonder if they still sell post cards?
Oops, I see Olde America Antiques may be permanently closed! =(
Thanks Steve and Major, these are wonderful, bringing back all kinds of memories.
My favorite today is the Spanish house. For years I wanted a place like that with Bougainvilleas and pepper trees, but it never came to pass.
The aerial of downtown is nice too.
Mike, thanks for the good report of AA Walt, after seeing video previews on YT, I was very concerned that it would be awful and so glad now that it’s good.
JG
Mike Cozart, thanks for the detailed history! I’m going to add a bell tower to my apartment so that I can make announcements (such as what I’m having for lunch)! Interesting that the Casa de Estudillo home was restored by John Spreckels. A Disneyland connection! Somewhere I have a few old Spreckels Sugar packets, maybe even a paper-wrapped sugar cube or two. I realize that I have not been down to San Diego in decades, I need to get down there one of these days.
JB, old postcards loved to show folks from the frozen east how warm it was in Calfiornia… I have a number of vintage cards showing orange groves down below, and snow-capped mountains in the distance. The Cocoanut Grove card is cool, it’s fun to imagine that place with great music and folks all dressed up.
TokyoMagic!, I used to go to downtown a lot in the 1990s, and I never remember seeing fountains in Pershing Square. It’s a shame, but I can understand the problems they might cause in a downtown that had fallen on hard times (at least parts of it). I knew about the Selig Zoo, it’s fun to think about how various animal parks around SoCal contributed to movies - usually B-movies like Tarzan films. You forgot to mention that the baby contest your grandfather won was for “strongest baby”!
Steve DeGaetano, it’s funny, I’ve had my binders of old postcards for so long, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve pulled them down from the shelf in my closet. I think it’s high time! Very cool that Olde America Antiques is still around! I’ll bet they still have some postcards.
Steve DeGaetano, D’OH!
JG, yes, when I fantasize about having so much money that I could live in any sort of house I want, I have always loved the “Spanish Deco” style that you see in certain parts of SoCal. Of course I’d need a big yard with many cascading fountains and (as you said) blooming bougainvilleas.
I need to look at my Dad's stuff again. He has some old post cards that I have never really looked at but I keep them.
Thanks Steve and Major and all for the history lessons.
Zach
Yes many historic structures in San Diego were saved and their first renovations ( in the teens and 20’s) were funded by the Spreckels ( sugar) family and the Marston family ( department stores) they were saving structures from the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. Luckily they survive today. San Diego was lucky to not have as many ( but they had some big ones ) devastating fires like Los Angels and San Francisco had in the 1800’s and 1900’s . So those California port cities actually have very little architecture surviving from the 1800’s or earlier .
As Columbo would say ….; “ of and one more thing;”
The San Diego Estudillo House was a major inspiration to architects of the teens and 20’s - like Cliff May who developed the CALIFORNIA RANCH HOME style that really took off in the 1940’s and 50’s and is now considered a mid century modern classic .
Thanks, Steve D., for these postcard scans. I've enjoyed this series - especially hearing what everyone has to say about their personal experiences at the places. Major, I agree about the Biltmore Hotel...it's full of old-world elegance and charm.
Major, please DO share from your collection, too.
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