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Thanks for visiting Historic Happenings! If you are not on the email list yet, 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 not share your email address with anyone without your permission.

Marian Cote was the first to identify the last mystery spot and get this, she was the only one! I took your request for harder mystery spots seriously, huh? It was the old Southern California Edison building on the southwest corner of E. Main and Ben Maddox. Congratulations Marian and thank you for your great detective work, and thanks to all of you who took a stab at it. Now, so I don’t lose mystery spot gamers, here is a slightly easier one, I think.

Here are the clues:

1) This building is a big mystery to me as I do not when it was built, but it is clearly an old timer and has a lot of character.

2) It has been a meat market, department store and men’s clothing store.

3) It is surrounded by food, entertainment and classrooms.
4) The business currently occupying it has been there for many years.

Good luck!

The Stevenson name goes back to the very beginning of Visalia. Sebert Stevenson, the patriarch of the family, was reported to be the second white child born in Tulare County. He was born in 1854 in a house located on what is now the campus of Redwood High School. His parents came out by wagon train and Stevenson Street was named for that pioneer family.


A Little Bit of Norwalk in Visalia

Some time ago, an old photograph probably taken about 1944 was shared. Adjacent to the Oval Park was a Norwalk service station located at 101 N.E. Third operated by Ira D. Miller. On the same site in the 1930s was the Lincoln gas station. This historic part of Visalia dates back to 1875 when the Oval piece of land was designated a park. It was first called North Park. It was neglected for many years and became a dumping ground for trash; eventually, it became grazing land for sheep and cattle.

Floyd Runs for Constable

Recently, an old election card was shared. It announced the candidacy of Floyd Depew for Constable of the Visalia Judicial District. Most old-time Visalians remember Floyd as a Visalia Police Officer. He worked for VPD from 1941 until 1974, when he retired. In 1954, Floyd ran for Constable and cards like this one were handed out. Floyd is legendary figure in Visalia, and even though he is gone, his name is still remembered. Here he is shown shortly before he retired. I had the pleasure of working with him for a couple of years.

Visalia---Part of the National Historic Trail?

I was recently alerted to a National Park Service effort to get the old Butterfield Overland Mail route—all 2,800 miles of it—designated a National Historic Trail. Tulare County and Visalia played a big part in the old stage line that operated from 1858-1861. Visalia was a timetable stop and was recognized as the town offering the best welcome to the stage on its inaugural run. The Clampers put up a marker on E. Main Street in front of the old Togni/Cross building in 1973. It was near that site that the stage actually stopped. Unfortunately, the bronze stage graphic plaque of the marker has been lost or stolen and now only the bronze text portion of the marker remains. By the way I hope the Clampers would work on replacing the missing part of that marker. The community would love it and visitors, too. National designation as a historic trail would be a great thing for Tulare County and Visalia. I encourage you to take a look at the e-newsletter from the Park Service. The link is http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?documentID=45312 If you go to the bottom of this link you can click on the link called Trail Study News January 2012. There you will find some great information about the project. If you care to comment on the program, you can do it there. Thanks also to Troy Tuggle for sharing this set of Butterfield commemorative centennial U. S. stamps from 1958.

Huge Milk Bottle Marks Hyde Dairy

Richard Drath recently found some goodies from Visalia’s past in his family’s collection. One of the items was this Hyde Ranch Dairy milk bottle cap. It is in nice shape and a great old piece of local memorabilia. Many of you know about the Hyde Ranch Dairy, but in case some of you don’t, here is a little bit of history. The dairy was named for the Hyde family obviously, and was located where K-Mart is now near County Center and Hwy 198. It had a recognizable large milk bottle on the top of a high tower. It stood out prominently making it a significant landmark both on the ground and from the air. This photo shows the milk bottle as it is being lifted to the top of the tower. The truck, by the way, is marked on the side door, T. T. Godsey Contractor. The second picture was supplied by Marian Shippey Cote and shows the lineup of delivery trucks. Hyde Ranch milk bottles can still be found as well as these caps. Thanks again, Richard for preserving pieces of Visalia’s bygone era.

Old Malloch Homestead Up for Grabs

Catherine Doe, daughter of Russell and Tamara, is looking for a new location for the old Malloch homestead house located in rural Visalia. Peter Malloch homesteaded the land in 1870s and it is believed the house on the property was built about 1886. It is now in the path of development and needs to be moved if it’s going to be saved. It has lots of character and Catherine tells us that the outhouse could be thrown in to sweeten the deal, so to speak. By the way, in the back of the property an early hitching rail still stands. I wonder how old that is? Anyone interested in the possibilities with this old and historic fixer-upper, let me know. Thanks, Catherine, Tamara and Russell for letting us know about this opportunity. You can check out an early picture of this home with the Malloch family standing nearby. Go to the Tulare County Library website and see the photograph here:
http://www.tularecountylibrary.org/cgi-bin/photo_search.pl?words=malloch&how=and&sh=on&ti=on&cd=on&page=1&s=simple

***In the last HH we mentioned Jefferson School and after reading it, Brent Nunes passed along that when the school was torn down bricks were salvaged to build a neighboring home.

***In historic Visalia we don’t always think about old buildings with elevators, but we had them. The first was probably in the 1876 courthouse. The old Bank of Italy building, now the Bank of Sierra building, had (one and still does). The old Mt. Whitney Power building had one (now Quality Jewelers and other businesses), and I’m told the old Elk’s building located at Main and Locust had one, too. The Elks building burned. Someone also mentioned that the old Sweet Store had an elevator as well. Riding those early elevators was definitely a thrill ride. Carol Mathewson’s mom worked at the old courthouse and in the late 1940s, she was stuck in the elevator and in order to get out, she had to climb a ladder that extended down the elevator shaft. Know of any other elevators in early Visalia?

***Thanks to so many of you for responding to Sue Gunderson’s request for help. She asked about the rock band that visited Visalia in 1960s, but she couldn’t think of the name of the group. A number of you commented, mentioning groups such as The Association, the Grass Roots, Nitty Gritty Dirt Bank, and Beau Brummels. All of these possible were passed on to Sue. Sue now believes it was the Grass Roots that she saw. Thanks again to all of you for coming to the rescue.

***Joseph Vicenti recently asked a couple of interesting questions. "Who in the Visalia area has had the same phone number for the longest time? And which individual or company has had the same address (or PO Box) the longest?" First of all, Joseph, I will start this off. I have had the same phone number for the last 40 years. Can anybody top that? I'm sure you can.

** Kaci Hansen passed along a website she discovered called http://www.classmates.com/  On this site are many online school yearbooks including those from Visalia schools and you can check out pictures, ads, etc. Very cool. Thanks, Kaci.

…We notice the names of several loafers who “froze out” of this burg a year or so ago, figuring pretty extensively at Aurora, as secretaries of mining companies, etc. Landlords and saloon keepers will suffer some. Visalia Delta, March 5, 1863

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Thanks for visiting Historic Happenings! If you are not on the email list yet, 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 not share your email address with anyone without your permission.

Well, you asked for harder Mystery Spots and this is one! The last MS was the mausoleum building at the Visalia Cemetery. I knew it was going to be tough. Kim Gunter suggested it, so don’t blame me! Only two people got it correct—the first was Bill Allen and the second was Dallas Pattee. Congratulations to the both of you and thanks Kim for the good suggestion.

This next one is probably easier. Here are the clues:
1) This building is near the street that was named for a Visalian who was closely associated to this building.
2) It was built after 1920.
3) A number of local power players had a connection to this building.
4) It is located at a major intersection.
Good luck!

Taylors—Ma Taylor Called Them the Best Wienies in Town!
Taylor’s Hot Dog stand has been a Visalia landmark since 1952...that’s 60 years. The stand was operated by Jim and Pauline (Ma Taylor) for many years and is still in the family. I remember lots of conversations with May Taylor about what she called their famous “wienies”. So many people have enjoyed, and are still enjoying those famous chili hotdogs. Joseph Vicenti is wondering what happened to the old Taylors Hot Dog stand building that stood across the street from the current stand. The earlier smaller building stood on a concrete pad in the rear portion of the lot on the northwest corner of Encina and Center. Here is a picture of it. There was talk of donating the old building to the museum, but that did not happen. Anyone know what happened to it?

When Liquor Flowed Freely, But Not Free
George Reece recently shared with me some of his experiences as a state liquor control officer in the 1950s. George is a native Visalian and has extensive experience as a peace officer here. Tulare County has quite a history with illegal alcohol production. Here is a one of my favorites photographs of seized moonshine and related paraphernalia on display in front of the Tulare County jail in Visalia. Obviously, this is before George’s time, and probably from the 1920s. Thanks George for reminding us of our strong historic connection to the devil’s brew.

Jefferson School—Cupola was Saved

Recently, I had an inquiry about Visalia’s old Jefferson School which was located at Encina and Myrtle. It was built in about 1917, closed in 1966 and demolished in 1967. The cupola (dome) on top of the building was a part of its unique appearance. If you look carefully on the south side of Laurelwood, the well-known home at Giddings and Laurel, you can see the cupola as a decoration piece in the backyard there. It is a nice piece of history, saved photographically by the Visalia Times-Delta on September 21, 1967.

Visalia Municipal Auto Camp
In 1917, the City of Visalia had a free public auto camp on the southwest corner of Bridge and Acequia, about where the convention center is now. In about 1926, it was closed to campers and turned over to “Hustling” Hiram Hill, the manager of the Sierra Park. It was hard to maintain and keep clean, and Hill turned it into a “pay” campground. If you look though the trees you can see part of the Visalia Municipal Auditorium on Acequia. Auto camps like this were very popular in the early 1900s and many towns had them.

First Visalia High School Building
In 1897 Visalia’s first structure dedicated exclusively to the education of high school students opened its doors. It was an impressive looking structure located in what we now call the Lincoln Oval Park. It remained the high school until the new Visalia High was built in 1911, where Redwood is now. After the oval high school was discontinued as a high school, it continued as Lincoln Grammar School. Obviously poorly constructed, it was demolished in 1922, after standing only about 25 years. High school students before 1897 had classes in the upstairs of the Tipton Lindsey School.

*** Sue Gunderman has asked a question. She recalls a rather well known rock band that visited Visalia in the 1960s but can’t remember the group’s name. She believes the concert was at Recreation Park. She would like our help, so, if you remember any rock band from the 60s or even later, that came to Visalia, please let me know. Let’s get a list for her and keep it for the historical record. Was it the Beatles Sue?

***Robert Herndon is researching material for a Tulare County history book that will focus on subjects that fall in the category of “obscure Tulare County history. For example, he is looking into the Redbanks Hotel east of Visalia…a place that he says Mae West visited. He is also looking into the mysterious “Noble” street house, whose porch light never went out. He said, “There were many stories about the house and, of course, many claimed it was haunted. I last visited the home’s interior in November of 1989. For many years, the back door remained unlocked and although the house was frequented by people, it was never damaged. Inside, the scene reminded me of a shipwreck. There were coffee cups and plates on the table, a Times-Delta newspaper from the 1970s and clothes in the closets.” Sounds interesting Robert, good luck on your research and we look forward to reading your book.

***It has come to my attention that at least a couple of Visalia attorneys lobbied for Robert Brandt (Janet Leigh’s fourth and final husband) in support of him getting development rights to Mineral King ( 1960s and 70s ). This was going on about the same time that Disney wanted to build a ski resort up there. Does anyone know why Robert Brandt was being considered for approval of a ski resort in Mineral King? Could he have been an agent for someone else?

***With all the talk about the SPCA and the new facility being planned, Gary Holder has passed along that the site of the current SPCA was the location of a gun club in the 1950s. Near that site was also the Lazy A Ranch.

***Wayne Drouillard found an interesting little historical Visalia tidbit while doing some research. Harriet Eureka Drouillard, Wayne’s grand aunt, returned to Visalia for the July 4th parade in 1895. At the time of the parade she had been living in Bakersfield. She returned to Visalia as Mrs. Charles Keller. According to her she was the “first white child” born in Visalia, which would have been in the mid 1850s.

***Nancy Loliva who works with the City of Visalia wants you to know that the city has a new Facebook page and occasionally it has historic preservation news. You can go to the site at http://www.facebook.com/pages/City-of-Visalia-CA/193880147346796  and she hopes when you visit you will click on “like” near the top.

Exactly 108 gaily painted bungalows, many fitted with plate glass windows, some boasting fireplaces, others having private baths and all wired with electric lights are soon to be added to the residence district of this city. These habitations are divided into two and three rooms each, every one has a special housekeeper and all are on wheels. They will not be “For Rent” for the landlords filled them almost immediately after this year’s spring house cleaning. The “bungalows” form the homes of the Ringling Brothers’ circus menagerie, which is to exhibit here Friday, September 7. Visalia Daily Times, August 30, 1917

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Thanks for visiting Historic Happenings! If you are not on the email list yet, 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 not share your email address with anyone without your permission.

Congratulations go out to Erin Hayden who was the first to get the fire escape correctly identified as the latest Mystery Spot. The fire escape is in the alley between Midtown Sports and Links. Nice work, Erin.

Are you ready for the next one? Here are your clues:
1) This building was built in 1921 at a cost of $75,000.
2) It has an occupancy limit of 220.
3) It was built by R. C. Palmer and D. A. Schlemmer
4) Thirty tons of steel and 5 cars of cement were used in reinforcing the building.

Where is this building? Good luck.

Mt. Whitney Power Co. Photographs Online

As you may know, the Mt. Whitney Power Co. was incorporated in 1899 and really electrified much of Tulare County. The company office was located in a couple of locations in Visalia, and in 1912 it was on Main Street where they built the building that now houses Quality Jewelers (213 W Main Street.) This power and electric company built dams, created flumes, and generated precious power which modernized Tulare County. Later the company became Southern California Edison. Recently, Bill Tweed, a well-known writer and naturalist, shared this amazing on-line, historical collection of Mt. Whitney Power & Electric Company photographs. They are housed at the Huntington Library, but you can look at them on-line at http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/search/collection/p16003coll2/searchterm/Mount%20Whitney%20Power%20and%20Electric%20(MWP&E)/field/physia/mode/exact/conn/and/order/call/page/1 . Thanks Bill for sharing your discovery.

Tie Rods and Wall Washers
I know the title of this story sounds like a heavy metal band, but it is not. For many years I have been interested in old buildings. I guess it’s the history they represent but the architectural features are also of interest to me. One feature I have been particularly interested in is a small almost trivial aspect of these buildings. It is the metal plates/caps found generally toward the top of brick buildings. Many old brick buildings have them and if you look inside the building you can sometimes see the metal rods that run through the building and attach to these plates or caps. The rods and caps are building supports and their purpose is to keep the building from “bowing in or out.” Basically, these rods and caps help keep the building “plumb.” I have talked with many people about these over the years trying to find out what they are called but up t this point, no one has been able to tell me. Recently, I communicated with Philip Vallejo, an architectural historian with the state of California and he suggested they could be called “tie rods and wall washers.” I now have a name for these features and I thank Philip for that. The photos that you see are all “wall washers” that can be found in some of Visalia’s old brick buildings. Let me know if you can find any more. In places outside of Visalia, I have seen more decorative ones in the shape of stars, etc.

Malick Motors Remembered

Kim Gunter reminded me recently of the old Malick Motors building at 510 E. Acequia. It has an interesting front as you can see and the brick building(s) run all the way to Main Street. According to my information, the building is currently vacant and went up for sale in 2009. According to the owners, the building dates back to at least 1914. They also claim that Bill Malick opened there in 1954. It looks like there was E. Main Street frontage too at one time, and maybe there were two buildings joined to make one. Notice in the second photo there appears to be 2 different brick colors and styles. Kim also pointed out that she occasionally sees Malick Motors license plate frames on cars. Now that you mention it, I think I have too.

1873 Assessor’s Book – A Treasure Trove

Dustin Smith, a Visalia history buff and HH follower, shared an old Tulare County ledger book with me that he has had for a number of years. It is huge and very heavy and dates back to 1873-74. It came out of the Tulare Co. Assessor’s office. It is filled with interesting information about real estate and personal property dating back over 135 years. It reads like a Who’s Who of early Tulare County. Dustin has offered to do lookups for anyone interested in research material. It is organized alphabetically by name. Here is a sample entry showing what information can be found. Let me know if you have a request. Thanks, Dustin, for your willingness to help.

G & I—An Old Visalia Market

I have been in touch with Duane and Doug Copley, former Visalians, about the old G & I market in Visalia. It was named for the Goldstein and Iseman families. The Iseman family had been in the grocery business since about 1896 in Visalia and for many decades G & I was a household name. Copley’s bakery also had an outlet in the market. The Copley’s and Iseman’s were good friends and Duane recalls a road trip that John and Emma Copley and Jack and Lois Iseman took “together to study supermarkets.” Bob Iseman, the son of Jack and Lois, added that his parents and the Iseman’s actually attended a grocer’s convention in Florida together. Shortly after their return to Visalia, the new G & I Food Center was built on the southeast corner of Main and Willis. The market opened for business on Monday, August 22, 1950, and the following month Jack Iseman penned a grateful letter to the community which appeared in the Visalia Times Delta. The Food Center building still stands. It has been remodeled and now houses several businesses and offices. Thanks, Duane, Doug and Bob for sharing.

Miles Shuper—A Well-known Journalist
As many of you know, Miles Shuper reported on Visalia and Tulare County news for a long time. He actually began his career as a journalist in 1967 working for the Visalia Times Delta. Later he reported for the Valley Voice and is well-known for his regular column called “Miles Around.” I first got to know him when he was a police reporter for the Delta in the early 1970s. Miles has left the newspaper business and the area and is now living on his family property near historic Knight’s Ferry in Stanislaus County. Recently I paid him a visit at his family homestead. He gave me a nice tour of the area and we had an enjoyable day. This story is not really Visalia history, but Miles Shuper is part of Visalia history and I thought I’d give you an update on a man whose byline will forever be referred to by future Visalia and Tulare County historians. Note the street sign in this photograph, and yes, I’m sure you agree that it is nice to know Miles is still “around.”

Cattle Country Means Rodeo
Visalia and the surrounding area has been rodeo country for many years. It comes with being cattle country. As an example, the Visalia Delta newspaper reported in August 1859, “This is the season for the stock raisers to collect their cattle and separate them for the purpose of branding and marking young stock. Every few days, there is a rodeo somewhere on the plains for that purpose.” Even though these early rodeos involved hard work, without a doubt they offered the cowboys a chance to show off their skills and have some fun. Their rodeos took place in makeshift corrals on the open range, much different from the rodeo grounds of today.

Visalia’s first rodeo as an entertainment event was held in 1927 on land that is now Recreation Park. Oscar Warren originated and dominated the one-day event and it proved to be so popular that almost yearly, rodeos followed. In 1932, a group called the Visalia Rodeo Association was formed and in the same year they purchased the McSwain property south of Tulare Ave and west of Court Street. This land became the second rodeo grounds. For some unknown reason, in 1940, the property was sold and the rodeo moved back to Recreation Park. But the war years caused interruptions to his annual event and general interest declined. In 1947 a group of individuals interested in revitalized the Visalia rodeo began looking at 40 acres of city-owned land on the east side of the airport as a possible new site. The location offered plenty of arena space, ample room for spectators and their vehicles and enough room for livestock pens. The Visalia City Council supported the plan and Visalia had still another rodeo location.

A good friend, Guy Shelly, recently shared a rodeo ticket he had saved from the 1942 Visalia rodeo. I doubt that many of these have survived over the years. Thanks, Guy, for saving this one, and for reminding us of our rodeo tradition.

***Thanks to all of you who identified the vacant Copeland Sports building on Mooney Blvd. as the site of the old Purity Store.

***Thanks also to all of you who helped determine the approximate date of the Visalia brochure in the last HH. Consensus seems to be that it was published about 1968, give or take.

***Just as a point of information, the alley behind Links/Midtown Sports was known as Shinbone Alley in at least the 1890s. (Apparently, it was named that because of a butcher shop located right off of the alleyway.)

***Doug Rains mentioned the Standard Oil fire at Santa Fe and Houston. He was wondering when it occurred. It actually started on Wednesday morning December 1, 1971. It was a big one, but fortunately there were no deaths or injuries, but lots of property damage, though.

An Injured Chambermaid Goes After a Menial. Mrs. Carrie Cummings, chambermaid at the Visalia House, last night horsewhipped a dining-room waiter named Frank Morrey. Mrs. Cummings’ husband was sent to the State prison some time since for attempting to murder John Mangan of Lemoore. Morrey lately induced Mrs. Cummings to secure a divorce from her husband, promising to marry her. Yesterday he refused to comply with the contract, hence the horsewhipping. San Francisco Call, June 4, 1893

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Thanks for visiting Historic Happenings! If you are not on the email list yet, 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 not share your email address with anyone without your permission.

Nice work Karen!. You were the first to get the Mystery Spot. Karen Kirkpatrick correctly identified the old Tulare County jail as the mystery spot. Many got it right, but Karen was the first.

The next one I know will be more difficult so let’s get with it. I’m going to put you to the test. Where is this? Here are your clues:

1)      This image shows emergency stairs that were used to escape from a building in case of fire.

2)      This spot is sandwiched between clothing and sports.

3)      The other side of this building doesn’t look anything like this side.

4)      The roadway that passes under this spot had “shinbone” as part of the roadway’s nickname.

Good luck.

More Visalia Post Office History

Sharon Doughty found another photo of her grandfather, Edmund Kevol Downing, I believe in his official letter carrier uniform. He worked for the Visalia post office from about 1908 to 1940. In 1906, he married Effie Scott. Edmund died on February 21, 1941 at age 57 at his home at 411 So. Watson Street. Thanks Sharon.

Selling Visalia Through Brochure

                                                                         

Dana Lubich and his mom Tricia were looking through personal effects recently and came upon this brochure of Visalia probably from the 1970s. Great read here. No date on it, but it is early. Any guess as to the year it was published?

Old Main Street Photo Surfaces

While looking through an old photo album that belonged to her late husband Bill, Laura Heberling found this picture, probably taken by Bill through the front windshield of his car in about 1938. Notice the classy street lights, signal light, the two street/sidewalk clocks, the Fox and a number of other familiar businesses. Notice also the decorative pattern on the building on the far right—the pattern is still there—it’s the Starbuck building. This was taken looking west on Main from near Court. By the way, thanks to my daughter Lyndsay for fixing this photo which had a number of major cracks. And thanks to you Laura for the nice old picture.

Famous Auto Comes to Town

Dana Lubich, who supplied this winning photograph for the Visalia Community Bank calendar for the 2012 contest has done some more detective work on this amazing old picture. Dana found out that this fancy car is a custom body (similar to a Cord) on a 1936 Buick Roadmaster Chassis. This car visited Visalia on December 9, 1946 as part of the United Airlines inaugural flight ceremony at the Visalia airport. The famous car had been in the 1937 Cary Grant movie “Topper.” The fancy trailer in this photo held a generator for a sound system. By the way, Dana’s grandfather, Robert Morris, can be seen on the left. Good investigative work, Dana.

Do You Remember Standard Brands?

Recently Sandy Newman was talking to me about the old Standard Brands Paint Co. that was in the large block building on Mooney Blvd. just south of Beech. I believe it is being refurbished now, but thought I’d share this almost 40-year old photo. Bring back memories? Anybody remembered when Standard Brands closed?

***Gary Holder alerted me to the passing of Jack Feher on December 2, 2011, at the age of 97. Jack was the owner of the auto wrecking and salvage business on East Main Street where Carroll’s Tire shop is today. He had been in Visalia since 1936. Jack and his wife Dorothy had been married for 75 years.

***Maxine Schur is asking for any information on her grandfather Max Wolff. According to Maxine, Max had a dry goods store in the early 1900s, but he was also a “song and dance” man and performed as part of Dale & Doyle. Any information would be appreciated. Sounds like a good story here!

***Sue Gunderman has a question. When she read that the old Copeland Sports building just north of Jack-In-the-Box on Mooney Blvd at Tulare, is going to be a new grocery store, she thought she remembered the site in the 1960s as also being a grocery store. Anybody recall?

***Lindsey Van Deventer needs some help in resolving a family question. She attended Divisadero Middle School in the mid 1990s and her aunt attended Divisadero in the mid 1950s. During Lindsey’s time there, she remembers the school “mascot” was the “Trojans” but her aunt believes it was something different in the 1950s. Can anyone help with this mystery?

***The x-ray machine mentioned by Chriss Courtney Laursen has created quite a lot of memories. Apparently, the x-ray machine was at Cassidy’s Shoe store and Shirley Bridges, Barbara Hinds Joseph, Lynn Brumit, Sheila Caskey Holder, Sally Gerrard Boyne, Frank Pineda, Jan Moffett, Lowell Brown and Eleanor Bergthold all remembered the novelty apparatus at the store. Many people had slipped their feet into the machine to see the amazing view. Some said they thought the x-ray machine dated back to before 1950.

***Mike Hayes has been studying the Tartarville housing situation at what was then the Visalia Junior College. He and his family lived there and found that this form of much needed veteran’s housing was set up in a number of places throughout the United States. He believes that all of it was designed as “temporary” housing.

Patrons who wish to pay their subscription to The Delta in firewood, will please bring it along, before the rain sets in.  Visalia Delta, October 15, 1863