Lilacs in California

"Our efforts in behalf of Lilacs may be attributed to the splendid work of Mr. W.B. Clarke of San Jose, noted hybridizer of spring flowering shrubs and trees. It was he who developed the three excellent varieties pictured above."

Whither are the Palms Bound?

Here you can see that there were still palms languishing

along the Avenue of Palms as the buildings came crashing down.

San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) ·
Sun, Apr 16, 1916 · Page 29 

(newspapers.com) 

Everyone knows that the palms came back to Niles from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, right? But where is this written? I've searched for years for some record or news article that talked about it.

The Exposition ended on December 4th, 1915. The palms were still there four months later. The water pipes were removed in the spring of 2016. A plea to the community to save the palms was made in October 2016. After a summer with no water? And then still there a year later. 

Is there any truth to the palms "coming home"? Or is it fakelore, a story that people made up and people like to hear.

Why wouldn't it be equally interesting to know where they actually went after the Exposition? 

Coffee Pot and Silk Hat are Legacies

January 12, 1915, Los Angeles Herald

Under the Dome, Palace of Horticulture

From Frank Morton Todd, Story of the Exposition, volume 4, p. 310
The Cuban flag has a triangle and 5 stripes, seen here.

"Just how to treat the area under the dome so that the huge void should not look meaningless and vacant was at first a puzzle, especially as some features designed by the Chief of the Department for that purpose had to be pruned out of the estimates, for economy. But Cuba, eager to show her appreciation of the aid of the United States in her difficulties a few years back, applied for the space, and came forward with 14 carloads of trees and plants that turned it into an emerald jungle of strange, giant California vegetable forms never seen in this region. There were cocoanut trees, and Royal and Cocos palms, lifting tall shafts from which

they stretched their fronds over a billowy sea of ferns and tropical lilies. There was the curious mycrocycus a tree-fern a thousand years old. There were bamboo palms, breadfruit and banana trees, mangoes, guanabano, dates in bearing, and the finest specimens of crotons with\ their broad, variegated leaves, ever shown in this country. These strange and exotic things, all living under the huge glass bubble, thriving vigorously, and exhaling a moist, earthy tropical scent, established the sylvan atmosphere of the Palace and gave it a haunting and fairy-like charm." (p. 312)

Palms in the Japan Garden

From San Francisco Public Library

What kind of palms were in the Japan Pavilion garden? Or are these cycads?

The California Fan Palm 1887

THE TWIN PALMS IN LOS ANGELES.

From the Pacific Rural Press, December 17, 1887.

"Our indigenous palm, one of the most striking native plants of the State, gave the botanists some trouble in classification. First it was Prichardia, then a Brahea, and finally it has found botanical rest as Washingtonea filifera. Its native area along the Colorado river was thrown open to the public by the building of the Southern overland route, and is now a comparatively familiar country. Long ago, however, seeds were brought from this region and plants were established which have now grown to grand size, while the facts of their introduction have become a matter of tradition. The twin palms shown in the engraving which are growing within the limits of Los Angeles city, are perhaps the oldest and largest cultivated fan palms in the State. They are probably upward of 50 years old. The tourist who enters Los Angeles from the east by the Southern Pacific sees them upon the left side of the railway just before the station is reached; in fact, the buildings shown in the lower lefthand corner of the picture are those of the railway. These palms are a landmark for the tourist, and their photographs are in great request. They are now being encroached upon by the buildings, and may fall before the progress of the day, but we trust they will be spared as long as possible.

Nurserymen Bookshelf

California Association of Nurserymen

• First meeting      1911 Photo of participants, Los Angeles, November, in PRP
• Second Meeting 1912 1912, Oakland
• Third Meeting    1913, Fresno
• Fourth Meeting  1914, San Diego
• Fifth Meeting     1915, San Francisco, August 12-14, at the California Nursery Co.

Pacific Nurserymen

• 1911, San Jose, June 21-23
• 1912, Tenth, Salt Lake City, June 4-6, GR is abroad

Magic Lantern slide shows for the PPIE

From Branson DeCou collection, U.C. Santa Cruz.
This is advertising the "Bowls of Joy".

Branson DeCou was a photographer and travelogue lecturer who travelled the world from 1911 to 1941.

I ran across one of his PPIE slides on a somewhat sketchy Russian website. Luckily it had the "Courtesy Special Collections, U.C. Santa Cruz" so I eventually tracked it down to UCSC. 

The DeCou collection of 8000 slides has about 70 of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. They are incredible.

My Favorite PPIE images

From UC Berkeley page with map and this from International Harvester.

I have spent hours and hours (and hours) looking through PPIE pictures for photos related to the Avenue of Palms, Horticulture Palace, the California Nursery, and George Roeding. There are several places that just are so fun that I will go back and look at them periodically.

Avenue of Palms

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

I've been stereogramminating all of the palm stereographs that I can find with the New York Library's Stereograminator.

So when I saw this little guy standing in the "Avenue of Palms" in Los Angeles in Jared Farmer's book Trees in Paradise, I knew I had seen him before in a stereograph.

The title was "Avenue of Palms, Los Angeles, California. 1870-1909 1870?-1909?"

So what was the date and where was this?

Biking to SF after 1906 earthquake

This is quite an extraordinary journal - Our Bicycle travels to San Francisco on the Main Highway At That Time, volume II.

Volume I is The Earthquake Story of Stanford University.

Both good places to see where palm trees are growing in 1906.

Bancroft has put a nice wrapper around their earthquake collection.

Golden Gate view 1860's

Calisphere

I think we are looking at the future site of the PPIE, perhaps 50 years before. "The Presidio and Golden Gate from Russian Hill" is the title that shows up if you enlarge the photo.

Hardly any trees!

Everyone else was on the move, too

Oakland Tribune, July 14, 1915

Are we coming to this? uh, yeah

Oakland Tribune, October 21, 1915

For Sale - Plants who went to the 1915 fair

From the Oakland Tribune, October 20, 1915

Japanese Garden in the Horticulture Garden

From Official Catalogue

Block 1 is marked "Japan".  I've been wondering what was in it. Ran across the "Official Catalogue of Exhibitors Panama-Pacific International Exposition" while searching for Domoto (a local nursery) and PPIE.

Construction photos of the South Gardens

Tower of Jewels, June 21, 1914

Some construction photos of the PPIE don't have a date. So I've collected dated photos that show the Tower of Jewels. I created a timeline of photos including these undated panoramas according to the progress of the construction of the Tower of Jewels.

The Library of Congress has the following panoramas.

• February 20, 1914
• March 20, 1914 
• March 30, 1914 from Education, some palms
• unknown date
• April 18, 1914
• May 1, 1914 - hort palace well framed. not good picture.
• unknown date 2. hort palace has glass.
• June 21, 1914
• unknown date 3.
• Unknown date 4, 3 months before opening.
• 1915, unknown date

Counting palms

The number "350" is used for the number of palms along the Avenue of Palms in several places. I think that might be high. So I photographed the landscape plan that is currently displayed at the California Historical Society.

Some palms were obtained from CNC and some elsewhere.

And, yes, I know. A landscape plan is more like "guidelines" than actual rules, to paraphrase the pirate's code.

Early Static Electricity Experiments

From Electrical Experimenter

Did we try this at home?

The Home Electrical at the PPIE

From the General Electric Review

"The construction of this complete house within the Manufacturer's Palace is an engineering novelty which has added materially to the attractiveness of this special exhibit. The home is a California mission bungalow in design built of gray stucco roofed with red tile in the picturesque Spanish
fashion and with a long columned portico along two sides. There is also a small enclosed patio or garden in the rear. The interior arrangement provides for a large and comfortable living room, an attractive dining room with a breakfast alcove, a bedroom with a nursery and a bathroom adjoining, a sewing room, a kitchen with auxiliary refrigeration room, and laundry. In connection with the house there are also an electric garage, a workshop, and a small creamery. Every room is completely furnished and attractively decorated all in excellent taste and yet entirely within the means of an average family.