Postcard History Series

Name: Early Downtown Los Angeles
Brand: Cory Stargel
SKU: 9780738570037
Price: 18.74 USD
Availability: InStock

The American Postcard history series books explores the history of an area through vintage postcards. Go fishing in the Salton Sea, tour the iconic Hollywood Studios during their golden age, and then take one of New York City’s subways back in time. From early Denver to the Grand Canyon National Park, these postcard books send greetings from the past to eager readers with a passion for history. [View all Postcard History Series books]

87 products

Sort

Early Downtown Los Angeles

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Cascade County and Great Falls

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Redlands

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Lake Tahoe

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Along Wyoming's Historic Highway 20

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The Salton Sea

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

San Pedro Bay

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Fort Benton

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Resorts of Riverside County

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Santa Catalina Island in Vintage Images

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Helena

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Lake Elsinore

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Sacramento

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Inland Empire

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Ventura

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Durango

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Glendora

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Previous 1 2 3

Early Downtown Los Angeles

9780738570037

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Growing south from the plaza where the city of Los Angeles was founded as a tiny pueblo in 1781, the area now known as downtown L.A. was first developed in the late 1800s as a residential neighborhood, complete with churches and schools. As the population surged at the turn of the 20th century, the downtown area was transformed into a busy business and entertainment center of shops, banks, hotels, and theaters. The explosion of the postcard craze in the early 1900s coincided with this period of downtown's tremendous growth toward a formidable metropolis. This collection of vintage postcards offers a glimpse into the changing city through the 1940s.

Cascade County and Great Falls

9780738581927

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Great Falls, on the Missouri River, began as a city of sun, water, and future. Long a crossroads for Native Americans, in 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition portaged the great falls of the Missouri. Early development combined electrical power from dams with mineral resources from nearby mountains to power smelters and refineries. The railroad stimulated growth as Great Falls became a dynamic Electric City at the heart of the mountains and valleys of Cascade County. Today the river, ranching and farming, regional retail, and medical facilities combine with cultural and recreational tourism and Montana's largest military presence. Great Falls boasts Montana's greatest ethnic diversity, with the state's largest Native American and African American populations. A world-class symphony and the renowned Charles M. Russell Museum help round out Great Falls as Montana's All-American City.

Redlands

9780738546803

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Cultural traditions coalesce in the city of Redlands like nowhere else in the Inland Empire. The University of Redlands is distinguished by a century of academic leadership to the community, the Fortnightly Club is one of the oldest literary organizations in the United States, and Spinnet plays favorites as one of the oldest musical societies in California. The rich cultural legacy of this sun-drenched San Bernardino County municipality intertwines with its past as a farming, citrus-growing, and health-care community, and lives on in the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, Redlands Art Association, and other regionally recognized organizations. The renowned A. K. Smiley Library remains an enduring tribute to one of the city's pioneering twin brothers (A. H. was the other) who oversaw its formative years.

Lake Tahoe

9780738558493

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Lake Tahoe has hosted a variety of visitors and residents through the years, from the early days of Washoe settlements, to rough logging camps, to today's extravagant resorts. When early settlers arrived after John C. Fremont's 1844 expedition, they would come by train to Truckee and then by wagon or narrow-gauge rail to Tahoe City. Over time, majestic resorts began to dot the lakeshore, such as the Tahoe Tavern, which included a ski hill, golf course, stables, movie theater, and bowling alley. Summer residents often extended their stays, until many lived here year-round. The lake gained fame during the 1960 Winter Olympics, and fast growth followed in these sleepy mountain towns.

Along Wyoming's Historic Highway 20

9781467115988

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Highway 20 was designated a federal highway in 1926, and until the arrival of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s it was a primary route across northern Wyoming. From the Great Plains in the east to the mountains in the west, Highway 20 passed though cities and towns that retain their frontier visages and such wonders as Hell's Half Acre, the Wind River Canyon, Natural Hot Springs, Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway, and spectacular Yellowstone National Park. Fortunately, historic Highway 20 remains almost completely intact and can be driven much as travelers did in years past. Postcard History Series: Along Wyoming's Historic Highway 20 celebrates this trip, illustrated by more than 200 vintage postcards showing the personality of the road. Not to be forgotten are the tourist courts, hotels, diners, and gas stations that made automobile travel possible.

The Salton Sea

9780738574554

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The Salton Sea was an accident of man created when heavy rainfall caused the Rio Colorado to swell and breach an Imperial Valley dike in 1905. For two years, water flowed into the Salton Sink and ancient Lake Cahuilla. Today, the sea is 227 feet below sea level, covers approximately 376 square miles, and is California's largest lake. During the early 1900s, it became an important bird and waterfowl refuge. When many species of fish were introduced, the Salton Sea also became popular for boating, fishing, hunting, and camping activities. Motels, yacht clubs, and marinas developed around Salton City and North Shore. During recent decades, the sea has become polluted from agricultural runoff, creating a doubtful future for the Salton Sea. However, it remains a sanctuary for anyone who enjoys bird watching, desert landscapes, or beautiful farmlands.

San Pedro Bay

9780738530437

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The name "San Pedro Bay" meant Los Angeles Harbor through the 20th century, but the vestiges of that original, rustic, fishing village-like identity still cling to the port community that, through its proximity to the city of Los Angeles, grew into one of the world's largest centers of importing and exporting. The bay has served commercial fishermen, the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, the sailing yachts of the very wealthy, and the dinghies of the disenfranchised. Today, tugboats guide gargantuan oceangoing cargo ships under the towering gantry cranes for off-loading, and enormous cruise ships call the Port of Los Angeles home.

Fort Benton

9780738570280

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River, is known as the Birthplace of Montana. Its history spans every era in Montana's development. Founded in 1846 as a fur-trading post, it is Montana's oldest continuous settlement. Arrival of the first steamboats and completion of the Mullan Road in 1860 heralded the steamboat era, bringing gold seekers, merchant princes, scoundrels, soldiers, North West Mounted Police, and eventually women and children to the wild frontier. Then came the railroads, open-range ranching, and homesteaders by the thousands. Today Fort Benton serves the agricultural Golden Triangle and presents its colorful history through cultural tourism.

Resorts of Riverside County

9780738530789

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

For all the faults attributed to the San Andreas, its one very soothing aspect has been an enormous spiderweb of cracks spreading throughout the geologic formations of what became Riverside County. These fissures yielded springs and grottos of warm waters to which thankful pioneers and snake-oil salesmen alike attributed curative powers. In the 20th century, vacationers seeking relaxation, together with those afflicted with a myriad of maladies, came to Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Glen Ivy, Murrieta Hot Springs, and a dozen other wide places in the road to bathe in the balmy waters beneath desert breezes.

Santa Catalina Island in Vintage Images

9780738508108

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Throughout the years, the 76-square-mile island of Santa Catalina has hosted Native-American tribes, European sailors, American tourists, and even the Chicago Cubs. The island has survived both ecologically and culturally, resisting the temptation of becoming a Coney Island of Los Angeles. Through the work of its residents along with chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., Santa Catalina Island is as beautiful today as it was when it was discovered in 1542.

Helena

9780738559773

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Helena began in 1864 as a mining camp with the discovery of gold along Last Chance Gulch (soon to become Helena's main street). In 1875, Helena became the territorial capital of Montana, and in 1894 it outpolled Anaconda in a statewide election to become the permanent state capital. Postcard images captured many of Helena's landmarks and events over the past century, including the magnificent Broadwater Hotel and Natatorium, pre-urban-renewal Main Street, and the ravages of the 1935 earthquake. This book features postcard images of the Helena area, the majority of which have never been published in book or magazine form.

Lake Elsinore

9780738555881

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The city of Lake Elsinore is home to Southern California's only natural lake. Since the 1800s, the lake has provided respite and recreation, beginning as a campsite for early pioneer travelers and later evolving into a world-class playground for the rich and famous. In 1951, Lake Elsinore's popularity suffered when the lake dried up, causing many of the recreational activities to move away. Today the lake is maintained at an ideal 1,240 feet above sea level and filled with weekend watercraft and fishermen, while families picnic nearby and the city enjoys a major growth in population and businesses.

Sacramento

9780738571522

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

In 1850, Sacramento was a city of 10,000 men with almost no women or children, a transient population going to and from the gold mines in the Sierra Nevada. The waterfront on the Sacramento River was a chaotic scene of oxen and mule teams, piles of supplies on the wharf, and abandoned ships whose crews had jumped ship for the goldfields. The city also became a major railroad junction and agricultural hub in the 1800s before it became the center of state government, and much of the bustling city's early life was captured on picture postcards.

Inland Empire

9780738559070

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Southern California's vast Inland Empire is one of the fastest growing regions of the United States. It is a wonderland of old-growth vineyards, citrus groves, hot-water resorts, Wild West landmarks, and Native American territories. America's fabled Mother Road, Route 66, runs right through it. Its fertile valleys are encircled by mountains with famous resort areas such as Idyllwild, Big Bear Lake, and Lake Arrowhead. Those mountains are surrounded in turn by some of the world's best-known desert resort and recreational areas, including Palm Springs, the Mojave, Death Valley, and Joshua Tree National Park. Inland Empire is the first book of its kind, offering a postcard-perfect grand tour of the entire region.

Ventura

9780738530338

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The city of Ventura traces its heritage back to the founding of Mission San Buenaventura in March 1782. The intervening eras have seen cattle drives down Main Street, revival tents in the marshy area now known as Pierpont, and the days when the Ventura trolley was the quickest way around town. The attractive images in this postcard tour through bygone times also include the stately Schiappapietra Mansion on Santa Clara Street, which was sadly torn down in the mid-1950s. The county seat of Ventura County, the city of Ventura retains a picture-postcard ambiance, and these images illustrate how that charm always has been a part of Ventura heritage.

Durango

9780738574370

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

This collection presents a postcard tour of Durango and its environs and provides keen insight into the history and colorful character of this area, which has been a vibrant center of Southwestern Colorado for more than a century. A brief history of postcards as a convenient medium for sharing messages--and as a revolutionary departure from Victorian-era long letters--is included here as well. The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College is pleased to present these evocative images gathered by the indefatigable Nina Heald Webber.

Glendora

9780738558004

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Azusa Valley, before the 1850s, was a wilderness of ancient live oak trees; thick stretches of cactus, chaparral, and sagebrush; and large boulders from thousands of years of erosion. Pioneers staked claims and began to clear the land. Though many gave up and moved back East, the permanent settlers persevered, and Glendora emerged as a town around 1887. Glendora incorporated in 1911, and an immensely profitable citrus industry kept it thriving. Today it is a quaint community, proud of its citrus-trade heritage.