“Several years were required in completing this splendid building. Located on Washington Square. Contains many fine paintings. The Municipal Courts Building is directly west of City Hall.”  I’m thinking that some artistic license was taken with regards to the coloring of the landscaping.

This week’s entry for Postcard Friendship Friday the 13th is addressed to Miss Evelyn Chester, a neighbor of Kay Anthony.  From Granite City, Illinois on May 26, 1945, “Nellie” writes: “Hi — Hold everything in the road until I come back.”  Wait — you want me to do what now?

Don’t forget to check out what the other PFF bloggers have on display this week. Once you’re done, get some free pictures to spice up your blog.

“For millions of years this ‘Mighty Chimney’ 225 ft. high, has stood unmoved. The panorama from its top is a memory maker — beautiful mountains, Hickory Nut Gorge, towering cliffs, incomparable Lake Lure, and the Piedmont Plain.” This card from the Asheville Post Card Company is a treasure I almost missed, tucked away in one of the albums that had been owned by Kay Anthony.  Based on the art deco fonts on the back, it was probably made not later than the mid-1930s.

I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been busy Christmas shopping. And look what I found! These two Christmas ornaments seem to have started life as copies of vintage Christmas postcards (presumably copies, anyway, since there were duplicated designs in the store display). A little glitter, a couple of beads, and some silvery pipe-cleaner-type garnish later, you have something suitable for the Christmas tree. (We don’t put up a tree at the house, so these are living on the fireplace mantle instead.) Very nifty.

In honor of the Marine Corps Birthday, here is one of the few (and proud, I suppose) Marine Corps cards in my collection. The colors on this card are great, despite being a bit faded from age. There’s some wear on each corner; it might have lived inside an album for a time. I’m going to guess that it was manufactured around 1945; the card is postally unused. It was made by the E.C. Kropp Company of Milwaukee.

Here’s what the Official Website for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton has to say about the site’s history:

In 1769, a Spaniard by the name of Capt. Gaspar de Portola led an expeditionary force northward from lower California, seeking to establish Franciscan missions throughout California. On July 20 of that same year, the expedition arrived at a location now known as Camp Pendleton, and as it was the holy day St. Margaret, they baptized the land in the name of Santa Margarita.

During the next 30 years, 21 missions were established, the most productive one being Mission San Luis Rey, just south of the present-day Camp Pendleton. At that time, San Luis Rey Mission had control over the Santa Margarita area.

In 1821, following Mexico’s independence from Spain, the Californios became the new ruling class of California, and many were the first generation descendants of the Portola expedition. The Mexican governor was awarding land grants and ranchos to prominent businessmen, officials and military leaders. In 1841, two brothers by the name of Pio and Andres Pico became the first private owners of Rancho Santa Margarita. More land was later added to the grant, making the name Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, and that name stayed with the ranch until the Marine Corps acquired it in 1942.

In 1863, a dashing Englishman named John Forster (Pio Pico’s brother-in-law) paid off Pico’s gambling debts in return for the deed to the ranch. During his tenure as owner of the ranch, he expanded the ranch house, which was first built in 1827, and developed the rancho into a thriving cattle industry.

Forster’s heirs, however, were forced to sell the ranch in 1882 because of a string of bad luck, which included a series of droughts and a fence law that forced Forster to construct fencing around the extensive rancho lands. It was purchased by wealthy cattleman James Flood and managed by Irishman Richard O’Neill who was eventually rewarded for his faithful service with half ownership. Under the guidance of O’Neill’s son, Jerome, the ranch began to net a profit of nearly half a million dollars annually, and the house was modernized and furnished to its present form.

In the early ‘40s, both the Army and the Marine Corps were looking for land for a large training base. The Army lost interest in the project, but in April of 1942 it was announced that the rancho was about to be transformed into the largest Marine Corps base in the country. It was named for Major General Joseph H. Pendleton who had long advocated the establishment of a West Coast training base. After five months of furious building activity, the 9th Marine Regiment marched from Camp Elliot in San Diego to Camp Pendleton to be the first troops to occupy the new base. On Sept. 25, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived for the official dedication.

Ramona was an 1884 novel by Helen Hunt Jackson which described the travails endured by our young half-Scottish half-Native American heroine, mostly due to racial discrimination. It was immensely popular, not just for the storyline itself (sort of a Native American Uncle Tom’s Cabin), but for the romantic descriptions of 19th-century California, and the Spanish land aristocracy. It remained popular for decades thereafter, in part thanks to a 1910 D.W. Griffith film starring Mary Pickford, a 1928 version starring Delores del Rio, and a 1936 version starring Loretta Young and Don Ameche.

Consequently, many places in San Diego jumped on the bandwagon, claiming to be the places portrayed in the novel. Many of them had valid claims, as it was known that the author visited these places during her research. They were assisted by the fact that train travel to Southern California had recently become relatively easy and inexpensive, creating a tourist boom.

Ramona’s Marriage Place, previously (and once again) known as the Estudillo House, was unique in that there was no documented visit by the author, and that the location of Ramona’s marriage in the novel is not well described. Nevertheless, they marketed themselves as such and enjoyed a great deal of popularity.

This card is one among a group of six Ramona-based cards that I found in a shop as part of a lot of several California cards. Each of them has the “From Ramona’s Marriage Place” rubber stamp on the back, and were probably purchased at the Estudillo House, at the same time by the same tourist. None of the cards appears to be any newer than around 1915 at the very latest. This particular card was published by Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco.

Ramona and its tourist consequences can probably be credited with keeping much of Old Town San Diego out from under the wrecking ball over the years, and can also be credited with (or blamed for, depending on your point of view) popularizing Mission Revival-style architecture.