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Sep 18, 2023
Photo Gallery “Disappearing Portals: A View to Historic Brownfields”
- Ruins of Industrial Shops, Mission San Juan Capistrano, CA (c. 1776) Photographer(s): Henry F. Withey, 1936 Photo description: Ruins of industrial shops, taken from the north west corner. – Mission San Juan Capistrano, Olive Street, between U.S. Highway 101 & Main Street, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, CA. The image is from the initial Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) which began during the Great Depression in December 1933 with the intent of putting one thousand out-of-work architects to work documenting “America’s antique buildings.” Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded in 1776, by the Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order. It was named for Saint John of Capistrano, a 14th-century theologian who resided in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Mission San Juan Capistrano was the 7th of 21 missions built in Alta California. The chapel, built in 1782, has the distinction of being home to the oldest building in California still in use today. Historic American Building Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HABS CAL,30-SAJUC,1G–3
- Hale Pa’i (Printing Shop), Lahainaluna Seminary, Lahaina, HI (c. 1837) Photographer(s): Jack E. Boucher, 1966 Photo description: Hale Pa’i (Printing Shop), On the grounds of Lahainaluna Seminary, Lahaina, Maui County, HI In 1831, the General Meeting of the Sandwich Islands Mission was granted land by the Hoapili-wahine king and chiefs to establish the Lahainaluna Seminary, a school for educating natives and training teachers. By 1834 the school was printing their own textbooks and the first Hawaiian language newspaper “Ka Lama Hawaii” in a temporary structure. The Hale Pa’i building (1837) shown here was constructed out of island fieldstone and mountain timber. Lime for the mortar was made at the shoreline by burning coral that had been culled from offshore reefs. The building was used as a print shop between 1837-1846. Afterward it became a classroom, dining room, and used for other purposes until it was transferred to the Lahaina Restoration Foundation in 1964. The Hale Pa’i building was restored along with other seminary buildings. It is being used as a printing museum and archives. Historic American Building Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HABS HI,5-LAHA,11–1
- Pickle Works Building, James K. Hill & Sons Pickle Works, Los Angeles, CA (c. 1888) Photographer(s): Michael Kenneally, 2006 Photo description: View of east rear of Pickle Works Building, facing southwest – James K. Hill & Sons Pickle Works, 1001-1007 East First Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA Initially constructed in 1888 for the California Vinegar & Pickle Company, the complex was later known as the James K. Hill & Sons Pickle Works Company. The complex developed in several phases until around 1909. It was first surveyed in an early phase of the Historic American Buildings Survey (c.1936) and again in the early 2000’s. This building is considered historic as an increasingly rare surviving example of Victorian-era brick industrial vernacular architecture in the center of Los Angeles’s former warehouse district, which represents the earliest construction in the district. Historic American Building Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HABS CA-2792-5
- Lower Tram Terminal Structure, Keane Wonder Mine, Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, CA (1904) Photographer(s): Gianfranco Archimede (2000) Photo description: View of the lower tram terminal structure sat deck level, looking northwest – Keane Wonder Mine, Park Route 4 (Daylight Pass Cutoff), Death Valley Junction, Inyo County, CA After fifty years of comparatively unprofitable gold mining activities in Death Valley, the Keane Wonder strike in 1904 became Death Valley’s most prosperous gold mining operation. One of the mine’s most impressive and intact technological features is the aerial tramway, which is the most intact original feature of the mine. The tram structure sets Keane Wonder apart as a unique historic mining site in the region today. Although aerial tramways have been fairly common for mining operations, the scale of the Keane Wonder tram makes it unique in the Death Valley region. It remains one of the few places in the Mojave Desert where an intact aerial tramway of this vintage can be seen. Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HAER CA-291-12
- Detail Storage Cellar, Winehaven, Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot, Richmond, CA (1908) Photographer(s): Robert Hicks (1996) Photo description: Detail of typical industrial doors and windows, facing east – Winehaven, Storage Cellar, Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot, Richmond, Contra Costa County, CA Winehaven, a complex of 35 buildings constructed between 1907 and 1919, is significant historically and architecturally in the areas of wine production and industrial design. During its 12-year operation, Winehaven was considered one of the largest wineries in the world, capable of storing, aging, and bottling millions of gallons of wine. The Winehaven complex represents an unusually intact company town. It contains 29 residences, two very large winery buildings, a shipping building, and three support buildings (a power plant, fire house, and warehouse), all dating to the period in which the winery operated. The winery buildings are considered unusual and significant examples of fireproof and seismically-reinforced industrial buildings designed in response to the 1906 earthquake in Northern California. Historic American Building Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HABS CAL,7-RICH,2A–12
- Crenulation and Turret, Winehaven Building, Winehaven, Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot, Richmond, CA (1908) Photographer(s): Robert Hicks (1996) Photo description: Detail of crenulation and turret of the Winehaven Building, Winehaven, Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot, Richmond, Contra Costa County, CA Begun in 1894 in San Francisco, the California Wine Association moved to Point Molate after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, and began construction of Winehaven on 412 acres at Point Molate in Richmond, CA. At the peak of the season, as many as 400 workers lived in this company town. The winery was shut down by Prohibition in 1919 and went mostly unused until the Navy bought the site in 1941 and converted it into a Naval Fuel Depot. Despite the switch from wine to fuel, the historic district remains virtually unaltered from its days as a winery. There are 35 buildings in the National Register historic district built between 1907 and 1919, the most notable being the castle-like Winehaven Building adorned with crenellated parapet and corner turrets. Historic American Building Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HABS CAL,7-RICH,2A–10
- American Trona Corporation Buildings, San Pedro, Los Angeles, CA (1916-1917) Photographer(s): Marvin Rand, 1982 Photo description: Railroad loading area; west side of building, looking south – Fort MacArthur, Raw Salt Storage & Processing Buildings, Pacific Avenue, San Pedro, Los Angeles County, CA Image from the historic resource survey conducted for the American Trona Corporation, Fort MacArthur, Raw Salt Storage & Processing Buildings, Pacific Avenue, San Pedro, Los Angeles County, CA. The Trona Plant (Building 425) at Fort MacArthur is one of the largest remaining wood timber buildings in Southern California. As such, it represents an impressive example of an early west coast industrial building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 30, 1984. Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HAER CAL,19-SANPE,1–5
- Petrified Log Station, Holbrook, AZ (1925, 1932) Photographer(s): Robert G. Graham (1993) Photo description: East front facade of the Petrified Log Station, 503 Apache Drive, Holbrook, Navajo County, AZ The Petrified Log Station was constructed by Santos Ortega in 1925 for use as a sheeps’ hide warehouse. With the Great Depression in 1929, Ortega converted the building into a gas station and covered the front facade with petrified logs he’d collected to attract migrant travelers seeking a better life in California. Ortega also served the local Hispanic community by operating a small grocery store and dance hall in the building until 1940 when it was sold. The Petrified Log Station is historically significant for its association with the tourism industry in Holbrook, for its outstanding architectural use of local petrified wood, and for its association with the prominent Ortega family. Historic American Building Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HABS ARIZ,9-HOLB,1–4
- Interurban Electric Railway Bridge Yard Shop, Oakland, CA (c. 1938) Photographer(s): Don Tateishi,1992 Photo description: Interurban Electric Railway Bridge Yard Shop, Interstate 80 at Alameda County Postmile 2.0, Oakland, Alameda County, CA The Interurban Electric Railway (IER) Bridge Yard Shop is significant as a rare surviving element of the IER, for its historical association with the Bay Bridge, and as an excellent example of International Style in industrial buildings. The building provided maintenance and repairs to the cars of the Interurban Electric Railway which operated over the Bridge Railway on the lower deck of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. When the Interurban Electric Railway ceased operation in 1940, the Key System used the building until that line’s ultimate demise in 1960, after which the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) acquired it for maintenance use. Only this building and a portion of the 26th Street Junction Bridge remain of the Interurban Electric Railway. Historic American Building Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HAER CAL,1-OAK.V,1–4
- Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard, Car Repair Shop, Fallon, NV (1938-1953) Photographer(s): Don Westphal, between 1969-1980 Photo description: Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard; view of the east side of the car repair shop located at Sixth & Taylor Streets, Fallon, Churchill County, NV. The Truckee–Carson Irrigation District (TCID) is a political subdivision of the State of Nevada, which operates dams at Lake Tahoe, diversion dams on the Truckee River in Washoe County, and the Lake Lahontan reservoir. It also operates 380 miles of canals, and 340 miles of drains, in support of agriculture in Lyon County and Churchill County in western Nevada. The car repair shop is a fine example of period vernacular architecture and contributes to the larger Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard district. It first appears on a 1953 map of the TCID, however, it is situated on the site of the grease rack shown on the 1937 CCC map of Camp Newlands*. * The Newlands Project was one of the first five reclamation projects authorized by the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress) Call Number: HAER NEV,1-FALL,1E–6
- Irrigation Pumping Plant, Tulare County, CA Photographer(s): Dorothea Lange (1938) Photo description: This pumping plant was powered by a natural gas engine at about half the cost of electricity in 1938. Butane (natural gas in tanks) was used as a source of power on small farms developed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) Rural Rehabilitation Program in Tulare, Kern, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, California. The FSA was created in 1937 under the Department of Agriculture and relied on a network of cooperation between states and county offices to determine which clients needed loans that could not get this credit somewhere else. Farmers could use these loans to buy land, equipment, livestock, or seeds. Additionally, the FSA assisted families by providing healthcare, education, and training programs for participating families in an effort to be self-sustaining. U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Call Number: LC-USF34- 018360-E [P&P] LOT 364
- Dehydrating Plant, Turlock, CA Photographer(s): Russell Lee (1942) Photo description: Loads of Cabbage at a Dehydrating Plant, Turlock, CA This image shows truck loads of cabbage heads waiting for the dehydration process. Washed, blanched and chopped cabbage leaves were dehydrated on racks and moved along conveyor belts, and eventually hermetically sealed in cans ready for shipping. Photos such as this were documented by the U.S. Farm Security Administration. There are more than the 63,000 prints depicting American life between 1935 and 1942 U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Call Number: LC-USF34- 072812-D [P&P] LOT 137