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Thanks for visiting Historic Happenings! If you are not on the email list, and would like to be notified via email when a new posting of this newsletter is made, please email Terry Ommen at histerry@comcast.net. I will add you to the list. I will never share your email address with anyone without your permission.
Congratulations go out to Virginia
Strawser. She was the first to correctly identify the latest Mystery Spot as
the Malick Motors building at 510 E Acequia Street, now vacant. The length of
the old brick building runs from Acequia
to Main Street. Again congratulations, Virginia, and thanks to all who got it
right or made a stab at it.
Now for the next Mystery Spot.
Where is this building? For those that like the challenge, here are the clues:
1) The building celebrated its
open house in 1941.
2) It was built by the City of
Visalia probably with federal funds.
3) When it was built it
contained about 3,000 square feet of interior space and was used to help people
find jobs.
4) When built it stood at an
intersection with North Street.
Good luck!
Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Depot
Historically, Visalia was not a
stranger to railroads. Although the Southern Pacific seems to get most of the
railroad attention, the Santa Fe played a big part in the development and life
of the town. Bruce Geiger was going through his grandfather's (Edwin Geiger)
photo collection and came upon these two great old negatives. Both show the
Santa Fe Depot which stood on the southwest corner of Main and Santa Fe. The
first picture shows the railroad depot probably in the 1930s and
The Mooney Grove Railroad
Recently Margaret Schultz shared
a number of photographs from her father's collection. Her father was Albert
Stroben. Many of the pictures were obvious as to subject matter or in some
cases had identification on the back, but some did not. These two were
unidentified, but they appeared to clearly show the amusement park train at
Mooney Grove Park. I checked Bill Allen's book Mooney's Oak Grove and sure enough the train was part of
Sierra Ballroom on Bridge Street
In the last Historic Happenings,
a Sierra Plunge photograph was shown ( also taken by Albert Stroben ) for
identification, and believe me, many of you spoke loud and clear confirming
that it was the Sierra Plunge. Located just
to the south of the pool was the Sierra
Ballroom. This old dancehall played an
important part in the lives of many people. The plunge and dancehall were on the
eastside of Bridge Street between Acequia and Willow. The plunge is gone, but
the dancehall/ballroom building is still standing and is now an auto parts
store. Some years ago, the owner gave me a tour of the old building and I saw some of the perimeter bench seating
still in place along the interior walls.
Recently, having toured it again, I noticed
U.S. Post Office Mail Wagon
Prior to home delivery, mail
recipients had to go to the post office and pick up their letters and packages.
The use of post office boxes was common. After home delivery began and mail
routes were started, postal employees walked their routes and used buggies and
wagons to carrying the mail. James E. Wright, a mail carrier in Visalia for
many years, is shown here standing by an early delivery wagon. The location of
this photograph has not been identified. Thanks Gary Wright, grandson of James
Wright, for sharing these nice old photographs. The dapper James Wright is
shown here in 1898. 
Thrifty Drug at Court and Main
Tony Cornett came across this
photograph of Visalia's famed Thrifty Drug Store. It was located on the
northwest corner of Main and Court streets. Looks to me to be about 1970 era,
but could be late 1960s. The building now has Starbucks directly in the corner
of this structure. I have memories of this drug store and remember the cheap
(inexpensive) ice cream cones. (Do I remember 5 and 10 cents each?) I also
remember the special scooper they used to extract the ice cream from the tub to
make the cone. This special scoop was designed I guess to consistently measure the
size of the scoop. As an historical note, this famous corner had a drugstore on
the site for over 100 years. At one time it was called the Visalia Drug Store
and was known as "the corner drug store." One more thing, did I
remember a "tube tester" machine in Thrifty? Seems like I do. Thanks,
Tony for the nice photograph.
***Wow, did the verification
flood gates open up on the "plunge" photo. So many of you confirmed
the photo as actually Visalia's plunge and I thank you for that. Many of you
also shared your stories about the famous swimming pool. Thanks to all of you
for your input. A special thanks goes to George Reece who sent a 1939 Times-Delta article about the former
plunge and also to Carole Mathewson who freely shared her memories. Lynne Brumit made an
interesting observation about the plunge. She said "that in the late '30s
or '40s it was thought polio and swimming water were connected (perhaps because
it seemed there were more polio outbreaks in the summer.) So they put so much
chlorine in the plunge pool you could smell it for blocks around."
***Well, J. C. Hickman, former
Visalia Times-Delta reporter and managing editor, shared some information he
found on the mysterious statue located on the island in the pond at Mooney
Grove Park. J. C. said he had never heard the story of drowned children
connected to the statue, but he does recall that the statue was of two children
and was entitled "Knowledge and Wisdom." This statue was mentioned in
Dean Krakel's book End of the Trail,
and although no verification is possible, could it be that the statue was also part of the Pan Pacific
Expo in 1915 like the Pioneer and the End of the Trail? Viola Vollmer is quoted
in Krakel's book and she makes no
reference to the statue representing two drowned children, but she does
identify it as being the statue of Knowledge and Wisdom. Thanks J. C. for your
good detective work and being an HH follower.
***Erick Broyles wonders if the
legendary Tulare County "hanging tree" may be the oak tree on which
the body of John Wood was hung in 1850 at the time of the so called "Wood's massacre." The
story of a hanging tree has been around along time. Could this be the hanging tree? Quien sabe?
***Anne Brazil is trying to find
a picture of Hipwell's Market, a Visalia grocery store in the mid-1940s. It was
located near Bridge and Tulare streets. Can anyone help with a photograph?
***Pat Haddock is looking for a
photo and/or information of the Mt. Whitney High School Band and their trip to
Disneyland. She is specifically looking for band or trip photos that were taken
in the latter part of 1955 or mid 1956. Can anyone help?
James J. Kennedy, 21, said by police to have passed at
least $15 in counterfeit half dollars to Visalia merchants since last night,
was taken into custody by Chief of Police Harold Hicks shortly after 11 o'clock
this morning near the Santa Fe depot, where he had been inquiring about a train
to Lindsay. Visalia Times Delta, February 17, 1938