Name: Los Angeles's Olvera Street
Brand: William D. Estrada
SKU: 9780738531052
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Los Angeles's Olvera Street

9780738531052

$24.99

Olvera Street Mexican marketplace and its plaza form the home of Latino culture in the Los Angeles region. Still standing in this downtown location of many fiestas, including Cinco de Mayo, are the Avila Adobe, plaza church-- La Iglesia de Nuestra Se±ora La Reina de Los Angeles, Pico House, Sepulveda House, and L.A. Firehouse No. 1. El Pueblo de La Reina de Los Angeles was founded in 1781. The 1820sbuilt plaza was ruled for decades by the magnanimous Judge Agust n Olvera. Wine Street was renamed in his honor after his 1876 death and took on a back-alley toughness depicted in early Hollywood films. In the 1920s, Christine Sterling campaigned to save
the Avila Adobe from demolition and transform Olvera Street into an internationally recognized tourist destination, which opened in 1930. Today the old plaza and Olvera Street shops, restaurants, museums, and vendors draw 1 million people annually under the auspices of El Pueblo de Los
Angeles Historical Monument.

Winters

9780738569147

$24.99

Nestled along the banks of Putah Creek, just below a gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Winters is known for its old railroad bridge, opera house, Buckhorn Restaurant, and historic downtown, as well as its access to Lake Berryessa. Once part of a Mexican land grant called Rancho Rio de Los Putos, the town of Winters was born in 1875 when the Vaca Valley Railroad extended a line through the area. It became a thriving agricultural community, and from an era of booming local businesses with hotels, warehouses, and department stores once known as Apricot City, it has evolved into the town known today as "the Gateway to Lake Berryessa."

Oceano

9780738580876

$24.99

Oceano is a California beach town between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Originally part of the Rancho El Pismo Mexican land grant of 1840, Oceano first appeared as a place name on a map in 1893 and was promoted as a beach resort soon after the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in 1895. While most of these promotions failed during the Great Depression, the railroad depot continued as a shipping point for the area's agriculture. During this time, Oceano became a point of entry for the "Dunites," a group of artists, writers, and poets who once lived in the sand dunes south of town. Today Oceano is still the primary access and gateway to its state park beach and large sand dune complex. Many people come to enjoy the experience of driving on the beach, camping there, and venturing into the dunes on foot or by vehicle.

Calaveras Big Trees

9780738581187

$24.99

Augustus T. Dowd could scarcely believe his eyes when he stumbled upon one of nature's majestic wonders in 1852. Hunting down a wounded bear in the hills above the mining camp of Murphys, Dowd instead found a tree of mammoth proportions. After initial skepticism about the size of these trees, news of Dowd's discovery quickly spread. Local businessmen soon acquired the grove of 100 mammoth trees, or giant sequoia, and built accommodations for travelers. Thus began one of California's earliest tourist attractions in 1853. Dedicated as a California State Park in 1931, Calaveras Big Trees State Park hosts 250,000 annual visitors who come from around the world to marvel at these wondrous giants in their magnificent natural surroundings.

Granada Hills

9780738547718

$24.99

The modern history of Granada Hills began in 1913 with the completion of the Los Angeles aqueduct and the arrival of abundant freshwater to the former land of Mission San Fernando. Citrus orchards
flourished on the Sunshine Ranch, acreage originally cultivated by former senator George K. Porter. In 1926, the community of Granada was formed as a rabbit-raising colony, promising residents country living and economic prosperity. Granada added "Hills" to its name in 1942 to avoid confusion with a similarly named Northern California town, and
thanks to the postwar baby boom, the population grew by 1,000 percent between 1950 and 1960. The community soon earned a reputation as "The San Fernando Valley's Most Neighborly Town" as residents came together to celebrate the hometown team's 1963 Little League World Series victory and the formation of the nation's first all-girl American Youth Soccer Organization league, and as neighbor helped neighbor
after the devastating 1971 and 1994 earthquakes.

Santa Cruz Wharf

9781467133937

$24.99

For a century now, the Santa Cruz Wharf has shone as one of the crown jewels of the Pacific Coast, and today it serves as a gateway to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. What began as a shipping pier quickly morphed into the home of the colorful and fabled Santa Cruz Italian fishing colony. In its most recent iteration, the wharf serves as the primary destination for upward of four million annual visitors to Santa Cruz County. Since the time of the California Gold Rush in the late 1840s, there have been six wharves, or wooden piers, along the Santa Cruz waterfront, providing critical links for the local community to regional and global markets. The Santa Cruz Wharf, and all the 4,528 wooden piles that compose it, provides both external and internal vistas not found anywhere on land and is a place for contemplation, reflection, and quietude.

Surfing in San Diego

9780738547565

$24.99

San Diego County has nearly 75 miles of picturesque coastline on the mighty Pacific Ocean, and for decades, San Diego has boasted of producing some of the world's finest surfers. But here surfing is more
than a sport--it is a Southern California lifestyle--and as such has heavily influenced the beach towns throughout the county. Much research points to surfing having come to Southern California in 1907,
and it may have taken hold in San Diego as early as 1910. Join with us in this wonderful pictorial journey through San Diego's little-known surfing past.

San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter

9780738528656

$24.99

Founded in 1850, San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, located in what was then called New Town, became the bustling anchor of commerce for the developing City of San Diego. In this new history of the area, nearly 200 striking images tell the story of the area's early boom and bust, the saloons and bordellos of infamous Stingaree Town, the urban decay of the mid-twentieth century, and the rebirth and restoration of the neighborhood over the last 30 years.

Windsor

9780738529028

$24.99

Legend states that the town of Windsor in Sonoma County was named for its similarity to the beautiful parklands surrounding England's Windsor Castle. Once open grasslands covered with majestic oaks, this breathtaking pastoral landscape bordering the Russian River captivated settlers, who came to start businesses or grow grain, grapes, hops, and prunes on the rich river bottomland. For decades Windsor kept the quiet rhythm of a small, independent farm community, hardly broken by the addition of an army air base and a camp for German POWs during World War II.

Cover image for Windsor, isbn: 9780738529028

Ferries of San Francisco Bay

9780738547312

$24.99

Decades before San Francisco Bay was crisscrossed by bridges, an extensive network of ferries plied these green waters, moving passengers, vehicles, and freight between San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Solano, Sonoma, and Contra Costa Counties. Very few of the ferries survive today, but at one time, elegant and sturdy vessels like the Santa Clara, Sacramento, Encinal, Eureka, Oakland, and Tamalpais ruled the waves and supported the critical commerce of this region. From the early days of single-enders, double-enders, stern-wheelers, and side-wheelers burning coal and crude oil, to more modern designs of diesel-powered craft, these vessels have long been an important link in Bay Area transport, along with their railway connections. Equipped with up to four decks, the ferries' cargoes included commuters, livestock, automobiles, mail, convicts, express packages, and even entire railroad trains.

San Francisco's Mission District

9780738546575

$24.99

On June 29, 1776, Fr. Francisco Palou dedicated the first site of Mission San Francisco de Asis on the shores of Dolores Lagoon. At the time, it was a just a patch in the village of Chutchuii, the home of the Ohlone people, and Palou could never have foreseen the vibrant city that would eventually spring up around the humble settlement. The final mission building, popularly known as Mission Dolores and San Francisco's oldest complete structure, was dedicated on August 2, 1791, at what became Sixteenth and Dolores Streets. After the gold rush, the district around the mission began its dramatic evolution to the diverse area we know today, a bustling mix of immigrants from other states, Europe, and South and Central America.

Cover image for San Francisco's Mission District, isbn: 9780738546575

Pacific Grove

9780738529646

$24.99

Pacific Grove, in the pine forests on the westernmost tip of Monterey Bay, is a magnet for wildlife, tourists, and scientists. Site of the first operational lighthouse in California and the first marine laboratory on the Pacific Coast, its beaches attracted camp meetings in the 19th century. Rows of tent housing that lined the original streets grew into charming neighborhoods of seaside cottages, lit annually by the Feast of Lanterns since 1905. Botanical and biological splendor attracted scientists like Edward Flanders Ricketts, made famous by his friend and one-time Pacific Grove resident John Steinbeck. Each year hundreds of groups use its famous conference center, Asilomar, and each fall tens of thousands of Monarch butterflies make a 2,500-mile journey to hang from the pines in great clusters of wafting wings.

Redwood Valley

9781467134507

$24.99

Redwood Valley was named after the majestic redwood groves between Road M and Calpella. Prior to 1857, the Pomo Indians occupied the valley along with grizzly bears, mountain lions, and eagles. The valley became a melting pot of nationalities, with people coming into it from Italy, Germany, Scotland, and Finland. They plowed the land, herded their flocks, harvested their crops, and established unique industries. The early pioneers set the tone for the valley community with their ambitions and hard-work ethic. Together, they paid for and supported schools, churches, an improvement club, the grange, fire and water districts, post offices, agricultural improvements, and stores. The infamous People's Temple was located here. Redwood Valley's 150-plus years of recorded history is rich in what it takes to make a valley into a community.

Antioch

9780738530291

$24.99

When the first settlers arrived here in 1850, they could never have guessed that their tiny settlement would one day be home to over 100,000 souls, scores of factories, and the gateway to the California Delta with some of the most productive agricultural lands in the world. In earlier days, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers were the main routes into the state's interior, as the swampy delta land had yet to be tamed. Antioch and nearby Pittsburg served as major depots for supplies to the Sierra gold fields, stockpiling lumber, produce, hay, dry goods, medicine, and fuel from the Stewartville, Empire, and Judsonville coal mines. Named in 1851 after the biblical city in Syria, this town served for many years as the Bay Area's easternmost outpost and provided its inhabitants with a bounty both man-made and natural.

Pleasanton

9780738547619

$24.99

The city of Pleasanton, located in the beautiful Amador-Livermore valley, was formed in 1867 when immigrants John Kottinger and Joshua Neal used land from their Californio wives' dowries and laid out a town. Kottinger named the city after Civil War general Alfred Pleasonton, but a postal clerical error changed the spelling to "Pleasanton" and the name stuck. The men secured Pleasanton's future by offering land to the Western Pacific Railroad for a railroad station and landing. Planning for future growth thus became a legacy that is still embraced by this modern city of 70,000 people. Today families and tourists are attracted to Pleasanton's historic downtown, where 19thcentury buildings still stand and people stroll among its many shops and restaurants.

Italians in the Santa Clara Valley

9780738555621

$24.99

Attracted by the mild climate and abundance of fertile land, Italians came to the Santa Clara Valley from all regions of Italy, including Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Tuscany, and Piedmont. Beginning in the 1880s, the "Eden of the World" beckoned Italian immigrants as farmers, ranchers, orchardists, vegetable growers, and winemakers. Italian men, women, and children filled the numerous canneries and packinghouses supplying the rest of the nation with fresh produce. Once the largest ethnic group in the valley, Italians' impact on the region has been profound, yet is often overlooked. The photographs in this book present a special glimpse into the lives of a people whose irrepressible optimism, kindness, and can-do spirit overcame the challenges and obstacles put before them.

Sawtelle

9780738547978

$24.99

A 1.48-square-mile piece of unincorporated Los Angeles County when it was annexed by the City of Los Angeles in 1922, tiny Sawtelle has lived very large in the hearts and minds of Japanese Americans. Their homes, livelihoods, religions, businesses, language, and other ethnocentric and social involvements are rooted in the area, with the Japanese Institute of Sawtelle as the cultural nexus. Bisected by Sawtelle Boulevard, this particular Japantown flourished through a close-knit network of immigrants who were denied citizenship until 1952 and were excluded by law from land ownership. Only through second-generation, American-born children could they buy real property. These vintage images--collected from local families, businesses, and organizations--provide rare glimpses into the Japanese immigrant experience in Los Angeles.

Malibu

9780738576145

$24.99

Malibu offers the best in Southern California living. This small town is situated close to Los Angeles and Hollywood, but far enough away from the traffic and stress of big-city life. All the clichés of Southern California come true in Malibu: the swimming pools, movie stars, paparazzi, and fancy cars. It's the land of champagne wishes and caviar dreams. But Malibu is also a beautiful, quiet, and surprisingly rural beachfront community. In a desirable location going back to the time of the Chumash Indians, the peace and environment of Malibu have been protected by city fathers with a vision. This is the California Riviera, a thin slice of la dolce vita located between the Santa Monica Mountains and the deep blue sea.

Woodside

9780738580623

$24.99

Nestled in the foothills of the San Francisco Peninsula, just north of Silicon Valley, is the small community of Woodside, which insists on being called a town. Herein are the tales of the indigenous Ohlone culture, Spanish and Mexican periods, logging of the magnificent redwoods, settlement by European and other pioneers, and Woodside's incorporation as a town. There are no traffic lights, sidewalks, or roads named "streets," making Woodside seem anachronistic. Horses have the right-of-way, and the main road through town, a state highway, is closed for the annual May Day Parade. Defining rural may be elusive, yet residents would agree that the narrow roads, open spaces, and plentiful trees contribute to its rural character.

Around Murphys

9780738529943

$24.99

Murphys is a bustling little town in the foothills--a town so popular that it won't be little for long. It's a favorite for weekend jaunts, and home to an eclectic group of people attracted by the natural surroundings, laid-back lifestyle, and, increasingly, world-class wineries. Originally named for the trading camp of John and Daniel Murphy, the area became a boomtown during the Gold Rush, and later hosted such notables as Mark Twain, Black Bart, Ulysses S. Grant, and Horatio Alger. Nearby, the majestic stands of redwood at Calaveras Big Trees State Park stand sentinel over the gullies and ranches of this area, which has changed much since the 1800s but still retains its compelling forested beauty.

Mining Camps of Placer County

9780738529509

$24.99

Everything in Placer County history leads to gold, from its name--the Spanish term for gold-bearing gravel--to the mining camps that sprouted overnight in its rugged river canyons. Ecstatic cries of "Gold on the American River!" in 1848 launched the largest voluntary migration in the history of the world. As claims "panned out," thousands of miners swarmed like locusts between the rough-and-tumble mining camps, from the crest of the Sierra Nevada to the Sacramento Valley. Some camps disappeared along with the easy placer gold; others found new methods to extract gold deposited deep in quartz veins or underground and developed into stable towns that still stand. Sometimes washing whole hillsides into rivers, hydraulic mining was outlawed in the 1880s, but the colorful characters and tall tales of the Gold Rush live on.

San Clemente

9780738580517

$24.99

In the 1920s, San Clemente founder Ole Hanson envisioned a "Spanish Village" on the Pacific coast halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. His city would have streets that followed the natural contours of the land. Sunny beaches and perfect climate enticed many to settle in this charming community. Known for its hospitality and neighborly atmosphere, the city became host and home to dignitaries such as Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Pres. Richard M. Nixon. Today, professional surfers, skateboarders, and small businesses call San Clemente home--the perfect place for work and leisure.

The Dams of Western San Diego County

9781467127219

$24.99

The unreliability of the San Diego River compelled the Franciscan fathers to construct the area's first dam in 1813 to conserve drinking and irrigation water for the Mission San Diego de Alcalá. This water-driven circumstance continued and expanded in the ensuing American era. Lacking a reliable water source at the turn of the 20th century, San Diego County was destined to experience modest growth. The region's semiarid conditions, cyclical droughts, and existing river systems determined that the only effective way to maintain a ready water supply was to conserve runoff and river floodwaters behind dam-created reservoirs. Between 1888 and 1934, private and municipal interests constructed a series of massive structures that made San Diego County the dam-building center of the world. The county featured some of America's first multiple arch dams and earliest hydraulic fill dams. Into the mid-1940s, dammed reservoirs remained the principle water source for county consumers and made the municipal expansion of the city of San Diego possible.

Arroyo Grande

9780738569444

$21.99

Located midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the Arroyo Grande Valley was founded during the period of the Mexican land grants. In 1837, the San Manuela Rancho was granted to Francis and Manuela Branch. The rich soils and mild coastal climate created a wonderful location to build a home, grow crops, and raise livestock. While livestock production has diminished, it has been replaced by a growing wine industry and field crops continue to flourish. Arroyo Grande remains one of the most pleasant and safest environments to live and work and maintains much of its historic village commercial area with little change over the past 100 years.

Perris Valley

9781467116879

$24.99

The brave pioneers who arrived throughout the late 1800s in covered wagons or on trains to the desolate San Jacinto Plains, as it was called at that time, saw beauty in the picturesque mountain ranges and blue skies and were beholden to their new home in what was to become the Perris Valley. Ready to start their new lives, many came for the health benefits provided by the dry climate. The Perris Valley has come a long way from its rural farming roots. It is now highly diversified and urbanized. Several exciting venues are part of Perris Valley today, including the Orange Empire Railway Museum, which is the largest rail museum in the western United States, and the internationally renowned Skydive Perris.

Beaumont

9780738547138

$24.99

For years, the plateau cradled between Mount San Gorgonio in the San Bernardino Mountain Range and Mount San Jacinto in the San Jacinto Mountain Range was called Summit, because it was the highest point in the San Gorgonio Pass. The Southern Pacific Railroad built a small red station at that site even before it was a town. A real estate boom followed, and the town's name metamorphosed from Summit to San Gorgonio to Beaumont. A real estate bust occurred in the late 1980s and eventually ebbed, allowing growth to once again rebound. Early years had been synonymous with stagecoach routes that passed through the San Gorgonio Pass, until the railroad became the dominant entity. Beginning with early pioneer families, there was always a strong desire to promote growth, resulting in a thriving community that arose from the meager foundations of a once-small town.

Turlock

9780738520926

$24.99

Turlock, like many communities across America, can trace its early development to one individual. John William Mitchell, wheat producer and entrepreneur, brought the Southern Pacific Railroad and a depot to what would become Turlock. This transportation link was the catalyst that brought business proprietors and settlers to the area and changed the 1850s settlement into an organized town. At the turn of the 20th century, the Turlock Irrigation district, the first California district under the Wright Act of 1887, brought water to the valley. A dam and system of canals provided the needed resources for crop diversification and the development of agricultural industry that changed the small town into a culturally rich, successful city. This volume focuses on the evolution of Turlock from the 1850s to 1950s.

The Chinese Community of Stockton

9780738520537

$24.99

Stockton, referred to as Sam Fow by its Chinese community, was the third largest metropolitan area leading to the goldfields of California at the turn of the 20th century. The Chinese immigrants came from Kwangtung, China, to find their fortune, and instead found a series of restrictive laws aimed at keeping them from participating in the development of the burgeoning frontier town. Their story is here, in over 200 vintage images of community life and resilience.

Despite legislation such as the Foreign Miners' taxes and the California Alien Land Act, and most recently the construction of the Crosstown Freeway combined with the redevelopment project that disseminated the heart of Chinatown, the Chinese of this area were major contributors to California and Stockton's economy. They have maintained a balance between their heritage of familial and religious obligations and western education and activities. Included are photographs dating from the late 1920s of traditional Chinese associations and more recent community activities. These images showcase once thriving businesses, educational and religious efforts, and familial milestones.

Cabrillo Beach Coastal Park

9780738571898

$24.99

Located on the edge of one of the largest and busiest ports in the world, the Cabrillo Beach Coastal Park is comprised of several seashore habitats found in Southern California. All are within easy walking distance of each other near the main channel of the Port of Los Angeles. They include a windswept beach and a protected harbor beach separated by one of the largest breakwaters in the world, as well as tide pools, a fishing pier, a man-made mudflat, and coastal cliffs that provide living spaces for coastal marine organisms. The combination of natural and man-made habitats here bordering the San Pedro neighborhood of the huge metropolis of Los Angeles makes this an unusual environment, representative of an urban ocean.

Rocklin

9780738529752

$24.99

Rocklin is a town built on and named for granite rock. Forty-niners headed for Placer County gold fields noticed gleaming boulders scattered among the oak and pine, but a decade passed before the first Rocklin quarry supplied granite blocks to build the state capitol in Sacramento. By 1910 there were 22 quarries chiseling stone to build, among many, the United States Mint and city hall in San Francisco, Oakland's civic auditorium, the San Joaquin, Solano, and Placer County courthouses, and Rocklin's own city hall after it incorporated in 1893. The quarries and the Central Pacific Railroad, which built a roundhouse in Rocklin in 1866, attracted a large number of Finns, who at one time made up a majority of Rocklin residents. But no matter what their point of origin, Rockliners loved sports, forming baseball teams and frequenting a racetrack where quarry owners ran horses with names like Golden State, Moko Boy, and Shamrock.

Early Placentia

9780738547282

$24.99

Today Placentia is part of the vast suburban Orange County sprawl that extends eastward from Los Angeles into Southern California's "Inland Empire." This landscape of homes and shopping centers was a windswept wilderness until a Mexican land grant helped transform it into ranches that dry-farmed hay and irrigated fruits and vegetables. The arrival of the Valencia orange and the discovery of oil reshaped the future of Placentia again as groves and derricks covered the land in the first half of the 20th century. The railroad also arrived, followed by more oil discovery to the east and the coming of laborers of Mexican heritage, who formed a community to the south. Schools, churches, and civic buildings remained ancillary to the predominantly agrarian society and economy that existed through the World War II era.

Rancho Palos Verdes

9780738569208

$24.99

Long before Rancho Palos Verdes became the newest city on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, it was part of Rancho de los Palos Verdes, a seemingly worthless patch of oceanfront hill covered in brush fit only for shore whalers, smugglers, and cattle. Through forfeiture and foreclosure, the Bixby family from Maine acquired the peninsula and made the land profitable by diversifying-ranching, sharecropping with American field farmers, and renting land to Japanese flower and vegetable growers. New York financier Frank Vanderlip realized in 1912 the real estate potential of the hill's dramatic vistas and rugged cliffs and canyons. Over the years, three cities were created as tree-covered havens for horses and wildlife-islands of calm. But danger to this lifestyle lay in overdevelopment from the Los Angeles County-owned land encircling them. This, then, is the story of the fourth city, Rancho Palos Verdes, created in 1973 from county land and dedicated to keeping the peninsula green and underdeveloped, as Vanderlip envisioned.

Angels Camp and Copperopolis

9780738559810

$24.99

The Angels Camp and Copperopolis regions offer a fascinating chapter in the history of the Mother Lode. Calaveras County's southwest corner has many tales to tell, including one of the earliest settlements of the Native American in California; two of the most famous names in Americana, Mark Twain and Black Bart; and two major events in national history, the Gold Rush and the Civil War. An important Gold Rush town, Angels Camp gained even greater fame through Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which inspired the world-famous Jumping Frog Jubilee. At the same time, Copperopolis became a critical supplier of copper to the Union during the Civil War. Legendary outlaw Black Bart made his first and his last stagecoach holdup here. Ferries and railways served the region that also included the settlements of Hodson, Milton, Felix, Carson Hill, Dogtown, and Lost City.

Russian San Francisco

9780738571676

$24.99

Even before San Francisco was founded as a city, Russian visitors, explorers, and scientists sailed to the area and made contact with both the indigenous people and representatives of the Spanish government. Although the Russian commercial colony of Fort Ross closed in 1842, the Russian presence in San Francisco continued and the community expanded to include churches, societies, businesses, and newspapers. Some came seeking opportunity, while others were fleeing religious or political persecution. In the 1920s, San Francisco's Russian population grew exponentially as refugees of the Russian Revolution and civil war arrived, and by the 1950s, a vibrant and culturally rich Russian émigré community was thriving in San Francisco. Today the 75,000 Russian speakers who live in the San Francisco Bay Area continue to pass on their heritage to their children.

Huntington Park

9780738547114

$24.99

Originally part of the Lugo family's vast Rancho San Antonio, Huntington Park evolved at the beginning of the 20th century because enterprising developers A. L. Burbank and E. V. Baker gained control of 100 former rancho acres called the Sunrise Tract. First renamed La Park, this land just south of Los Angeles was later called Huntington Park, after Burbank and Baker granted tycoon Henry Huntington a right-of-way to put his railway line along Randolph Street in 1902. Incorporated in 1906, the city of Huntington Park became a significant freight station for cargo coming to and going from Los Angeles. A working-class suburb throughout its first century, the nicknamed "City of Perfect Balance" saw a population shift beginning in the 1970s. Latinos have assimilated into the community's fabric, revitalizing the busy central business district of Pacific Boulevard. Huntington Park is a central hub of the Latino community in Los Angeles County.