Santa Catalina Island Country Club & Avalon

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The Catalina Island wildfires have been in the news recently and I thought it would be a good time to feature a couple of postcards from this island paradise. The fire burned 4,750 acres, mostly in the island's interior, and was 100% contained as of today. According to their website, the year round population is around 3,500 and in the summer and on weekends, the population can approach 10,000. The island is located 22 miles off the coast of Southern California from Los Angeles. The island even has a buffalo herd, left over from one of the many movies filmed there, that has been there since 1924. The first postcard is a circa 1915 aerial view of the Catalina Country Club showing the golf course and tennis courts. This postcard is available in the California section of my website.

The second postcard is a 1903 bird's eye view of Avalon and the harbor with the Hotel Metropole in the center of postcard. This postcard is also available on Moody's Postcards.

Big Four Railroad Depot in Terre Haute Indiana

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The postcard of the day is a circa 1912 view of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis (The Big Four) beautiful and unusual railroad depot. The depot is a combination of stone and brick with a massive turret and that white spot in the window at the base of the turret appears to be a ticket seller talking to a customer. A bonus with this track side view is an engine taking on water and a man with a white flag at the edge of the railroad crossing to direct traffic. This postcard is available in theIndiana Postcards section of Moody's Postcard website.

1909 Studebaker Vehicle Works South Bend IN

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The postcard of the day is a circa 1909 bird's eye view of the Studebaker Vehicle Works in South Bend Indiana which boasts production of 125,000 vehicles every year and included wagons, carriages and automobiles. In the bottom left corner is the corporate office and to the right is the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company where the wagons and carriages were made. In front of that building is the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad depot. The last red brick building on the top left is the Studebaker Automobile Company behind that is one of the three lumber yards shown along the top of the postcard. A larger image is available in the Indiana Postcards section of the Moody's Postcards website.

1906 Downtown view of Rochester Indiana

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The postcard of the day is a great 1906 view of the busy downtown area of Rochester Indiana on Main Street looking North and showing two sides of the Square with all the stores and businesses. This card was published in 1906, mailed in April 1907 but there are no automobiles visible so it is probably closer to a 1900 image. The 1910 census shows a population of 3,364 and the current population is listed as 5,969. A larger image is available in the Indiana Postcards section of the Moody's Postcards website.

Dining & Dancing in the Roosevelt Hotel Blue Room

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Before the days of television, one of the favorite pastimes of couples was a night out on the town for a great meal and dancing. One of the great hotels that catered to that crowd was the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans Louisiana with their beautiful "Blue Room". The back of the card says "The South's Finest Dinner and Supper Dancing Room. Music by the Nation's outstanding dance bands. Superb floor show twice nightly presenting outstanding entertainment. One look at the marble columns, stage, dance floor and beautiful decorations and you get the feeling this was THE place to be. A larger image is available in the Louisiana Postcards section of our website, Moody's Postcards.
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Postcards with National Banks

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There was a time, long ago, when banks prided themselves on the image of their building which was intended to instill confidence in the public that the institution was "rock solid". The postcard for today is a good example of a bank building which left no doubt that the bank was not only safe but well capitalized. The image below is of the new home of the West Branch National Bank of Williamsport Pennsylvania and could easily be mistaken for a cathedral. The back of the circa 1912 postcard shows the bank was organized in 1835, had capital and surplus of $1,775,000 and assets of more than $5,000,000. During this time, national banks were chartered by the U.S. Government who assigned a charter number and even printed currency with the charter number and the name and location of the bank on it. Many of these banks went broke during the depression but the currency, referred to as National Bank notes, are still redeemable at face value at any banking institution. Many collectors of National Bank Notes collect national bank postcards to match the notes in their collections. If you happen to run across one of these bank notes, take it to a collector and they will pay you more than face value for it and if you have a postcard on the bank, he might be interested in that also. A better image of the postcard below is available in the Pennsylvania postcard section of our website, Moody's Postcards.

Lake Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park

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Amusement parks are very popular on postcards and we have all heard of the BIG ones but it is the smaller, less known, ones that are always a great find. The postcard for today is a 1940s aerial view which gives you a great perspective on the size and, in this case, popularity of the Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park in New Orleans Louisiana. There is a huge boardwalk along the edge of the salt water lake, a large beach between the two piers with lots of swimmers in the water, two large parking lots which are full of cars and a very impressive roller coaster. Keep an eye out for these postcards which are highly sought after. There is a better image in the Louisiana postcard section of our website, Moody's Postcards.