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The
map was created by W.W. Elliott, a lithographic
artist who opened studios in San Francisco and
Oakland in the late 19th century. The
artists and engravers of the Elliott Company
depicted 56 cities in California between 1879 and
1892, reaching a peak of 15 maps in 1890. Their
excellent quality and highly detailed town views
included Riverside, Sacramento, Alameda, and the
city of Orange. An advertisement for W.W. Elliott
Lithography in 1886 stated that the firm was known
for panoramic prints of bird’s eye views and
ranches. They claimed to “make a specialty of
getting up illustrated descriptive works, keeping
artists and engravers adapted to this line of work
constantly employed.”
This bird’s eye view of Healdsburg in 1884 included
32 locations identified with tiny numerals. The
population at the time was estimated to be
approximately 2,500. The map is invaluable today
for historical research because it shows individual
houses and outbuildings in surprisingly accurate
form. The 32 specified locations included Gobbi
Brothers’ Winery, Optimus Winery, the San Francisco
and North Pacific Railroad, the Christian Church,
the Healdsburg College Boarding Hall (for which
“College Street” takes its name), the Baptist
Church, John Daly’s Store, the Sotoyome Hotel, Union
Hotel, Grangers’ Store, Fire Dept headquarters,
office of “Frank the Painter,” Healdsburg
Enterprise office, Plaza, the Post Office and
Russian River Flag office, Presbyterian Church,
Truitt’s Theater, Methodist-Episcopal (South)
Church, St. John’s Catholic Church, Healdsburg
College, public school buildings, Methodist Church,
Grangers’ Warehouse, the S.F. & N.P. Railroad depot,
Healdsburg Planing Mills, Oak Mound Cemetery, Fitch
Mountain, Mt. St. Helena, the Brickyard and the Gas
Works.
Healdsburg College, established by the Seventh-Day
Adventists in 1882, is prominently featured on the
map. In fact, the lithographic map may have been
originally commissioned by the school’s promoters—so
prominently is the school featured. The main school
building was located at what is today “Plaza Court”
east of Fitch Street between Matheson and North. The
summary of the Healdsburg College curriculum
included six practical employments for gentlemen:
carpentry, printing, agriculture, shoemaking,
blacksmithing and painting. For ladies, instruction
in practical employments included: plain sewing,
dress cutting and fitting, printing, laundrying,
cooking and general housework. In the early 1900s,
Healdsburg College moved to Angwin to become Pacific
Union College. It still operates there today.
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