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This month’s artifact, #400-223,
is a promotional brochure, entitled “Healdsburg, California and Its
Surroundings,” that was produced by the Healdsburg Chamber of
Commerce in 1909. It was donated to the Healdsburg Museum by Robert
Hill of Riverbank, California in 1994.
The
soft-cover booklet measures 4.5” x 7” and contains 32 vivid pages of
black and white photographs and historical details. A grape cluster
decorates the cover. Printed by the Hicks Company of San Francisco,
the booklet is in excellent condition in 2006. It features 15 pages
of photos of local residences, businesses, streets and industries,
all taken by Healdsburg’s celebrated turn-of-the 20th
century photographer, Mervyn D. Silberstein. It also includes a map
of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad and a closes with a stirring
poem about “This Land of Sonoma, its Queen Sotoyome,” by Julius
Myron Alexander, the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. |
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The
booklet touts the many advantages of Healdsburg,
which then had an (estimated) population of 3,500,
including the adjacent valleys. The town boasted
two good hotels, eight churches, two substantial
banks, three newspapers, several large wineries, and
four fruit packing and canning houses. In 1908, the
average yield for prunes was 3,800 tons, dried; for
grapes, the average yield was 20,650 tons; and for
hops, the average yield was 625 tons, dried.
Topics described in the booklet include: “Scenery,”
“Educational Facilities,” “Light and Water,”
“Churches, Orders, Etc,” “Annual Water Carnival,”
“Adjacent Valleys,” “Industries,” “Vineyards and
Wineries,” “Prunes,” “Hops,” “Apples,” “Peaches,”
“Pears,” “Various Fruits,” “Tomatoes,” “Garden
Truck,” “Berries,” “Nuts,” “Oranges and Olives,”
“Stock,” “Alfalfa,” ”Creameries,” “Minerals,” “Wood
and Lumber,” “Resorts,” “Stage Routes,” “Railroads,”
“Telephone Service,” “Rural Delivery,” “Good Roads,”
“Sportsman’s Paradise,” and “Poultry,” “Shipments,”
“Land Values,” and “Social Life.”
A
few sample selections:
In the city’s center, and surrounded by the business
houses, is the Plaza, after the old Mexican style,
which is kept green in lawn throughout the year.
Surrounding it are magnificent maple shade trees,
while within it grows luxuriantly the palms of the
tropics, oranges and lemons of the South, and
beautiful roses that bloom through all the seasons.
During the summer months a local band renders
concerts in the Plaza each Saturday evening, which
are enjoyed by hundreds of the town and country
people, making a gala scene of
festivity.
Hop pickers generally camp out on
ground furnished free by their employer. Good
pickers make from $3.00 to $5.00 per day, besides
enjoying the relaxation and charm of camp life.
There are openings in Healdsburg for:
a Good Summer Hotel, Theatre, Pickle Factory,
Vinegar Works, a Shirt and Shoe Factory, More Fruit
Packing Houses, A Good, Up-to-date Nursery, a
Denatured Alcohol Distillery, Raising Flowers for
the Florist, Capital to Develop Cement Deposits,
Wealthy People to Build Country Homes, Thrifty
Farmers to Buy Small Tracts of Land. |
