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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 Susan Mangini who was the first to
correctly identify the 
Now for the next one. This is a plaque mounted in Visalia.
Here are the clues:
1. This location was a school site for many
years.
2.
It is near a street that was once called Cottonwood.
3.
It is not mounted on a building
4.
Many “card carriers” pass by this almost everyday.
Where is this plaque? Good luck
Talk About Taxis
Friends Peggy and JM Bragg came across a photo recently that
absolutely astounds me and puts a smile on my face. This undated photograph
shows the City Taxi Service at 120 No. Locust Street across from Chan Bros.
Market. The thought that Visalia had a taxi
Dedicated to Visalia
Recently Rosemary Hendrickson shared a poem about Visalia
that she found in the 1968 COS Tangent. I’m not sure what the Tangent was, but
this 8 stanza poem was written by Jim Compton as a dedication to the
publication. Jim was quite the Visalia fan. It is worth a read. Was Jim a
student at the time? Is he still in Visalia. Thanks Rosemary for finding this
cute poem.
Legrand Ellis
Insurance
Normita Ellis Error, member of the VUHS class of 1948 and
daughter of Legrand Ellis, recently contacted me and mentioned her father.
Between Normita and Marsha Robbins, niece to Normita, we have some interesting
information and a photograph of Legrand. He came to Three Rivers in 1923, and
while recuperating from TB he took a correspondence course to become an
insurance agent, which he became. He went to work for Buckman-Mitchell when the
company was on No. Church Street. Later he opened his own insurance office at
121 So. Church. This photograph shows Legrand at his office on the west side of
Church Street between Main and Acequia. Thanks to Legrand’s daughter and
granddaughter for sharing.
Amazing, Simply
Amazing
Peter Neeley contacted me some time back and alerted me to
an unusual Visalia photograph that he had seen on a Fresno Bee Facebook page.
John Walker, historian and a Fresno Bee Staff Photographer, I believe posted
this picture believing it was taken in
Fresno, but Peter recognized it as really Visalia. Peter knows his Visalia
pictures! Here is the photograph and it clearly shows dozens of motorcycles
lined up on the north side of Main Street between Church and Court. The photo
is looking west on Main and shows Cross Hardware, Leslie Cook Racket Store,
then the Palace Hotel. Across Court Street is J. M. Boynton’s Drug Store
(cupola on top). Appears to be early 1900s, maybe a motorcycle rally of some
kind? There has got to be an interesting story here. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks John for sharing this photograph and thanks Peter for bringing it to our
attention.
Structures, Styles
& Stories Program – Next Monday Eve
We all know that Visalia is a pretty amazing place. For lots
of reasons, the town is amazing. For one, Visalia has some very neat old
buildings…buildings that are not only historically important, but also still in
use. How nice is that! We have many that fit in that category, but on Monday
evening December 12th beginning at 7:00pm, I will be highlighting 12
buildings that fit in that category. The following old photographs will be
included: Visalia Co-operative Creamery (now Arts Visalia), Studebaker Bldg
(now 210 Center), Montgomery Auditorium (now L.J. Williams), Fox Theatre,
COS Plays and
Musicals
When Richard Drath mentioned “My Fair Lady” in HH some time
back, he tried to recall the year it was put on by COS. Sheila Caskey Holder
came to the rescue and remembered it was 1964. Sheila also shared that she had
a collection of COS plays and musical programs. And wow, does she have a
collection. About 40 of them, one as early as 1951, “The New Moon.” Believe me
the local college has performed all the classics. Thanks Sheila for your help
on this.
Memoirs of George
Washington Duncan
A regular reader of HH shared these memoirs of an old
pioneer named George Washington Duncan. It is a fun read, typed on 24 pages
with the last 5 or so dealing with Tulare County, especially around the Tule
River area. There are a few Visalia references, but not many. “Grizzley” bears
and lots of material describing the land. It is dated 1901 however, the date is
a little suspect, but it is early. If you would like me to email you a PDF
copy, I’d be happy to do that. Just email me and ask for a copy of the
“memories” and I will get one to you.
***Byron Smith recently shared that when the famous “The
Pioneer” statue by Solon Borglum collapsed at Mooney Grove Park on May 28,
1980, at least partly due to an earthquake here, he was working there and remembered seeing in the rubble, “a wooden
frame with chicken wire” infrastructure, and recalls the rotting termite
damaged wood. No wonder it collapsed.
***If you would like to know more about the history of
Visalia’s Palace Hotel, which by the way is probably the San Joaquin Valley’s
oldest commercial building still in use, pick up the November 2016 issue of Lifestyle Magazine, the article starts
on page 12. Or you can go online http://www.visalialifestyle.com/history/
***Historian Andrew Crane is working on a historical project
that involves Jasper Harrell, a pioneer of Visalia who was probably the richest
man in Tulare County during the 1880s. Andrew is looking for a picture of
Jasper and I can’t help him. He is trying to find a member of the Harrell
family that might have a photograph. Any relatives of Jasper Harrell still
around? Help would be appreciated.
Visalia
Few people beyond the borders of our county, and indeed, some
within its boundaries who have never visited our thriving young town, can form
any adequate idea of its resources, its rapid advancement in wealth and
population, and its prospects of future greatness. Its name is often mentioned
abroad, and the inquirer, anxious for information, eagerly inquires, Where is
Visalia?
The day however, is not far distant when the whole world
shall know where Visalia is, and when its name shall be no more an enigma to
the most unsophisticated. The Tulare County Record and Fresno Examiner
(Visalia’s first newspaper), July 2, 1859