The description written under the photograph:  "Hammond's Camp,  Giant Forest.  Storm  May 29, 1918".         "Hammond's" most likely refers to Porterville photographer Eschol M. Hammond.     Besides taking photos around Porterville,  Hammond photographed many areas of the nearby mountains,  e.g.  Taking photos from the summit of Mt. Whitney as early as 1915.

---  Many thanks to Joseph Vicenti,  for this photograph. ---

 Photo circa 1918.   On the back is a studio stamp for Hammond's Studio of Porterville.

 Postcard image of Terra Bella,  circa 1911.

At the left edge of the image is the Hart Block building,  down the same side of the street is Terra Bella's  First National Bank.    Across the street from the bank is the Hotel Terra Bella.

 Another photo postcard image of Terra Bella,  circa 1911.

 Photograph by A. R. Moore of Porterville,  circa 1907.

 Postcard image of Dinuba's L Street,  looking north between Tulare and Kern Streets.   Circa 1910.

 Photo postcard image of  Traver's school.   It's postmarked: "Traver, Cal.   Feb 2, 1911".

The person who sent the card writes: "Dear Leid, I will send this, it is the school of Traver.  Lealand Chester is here...". 

An old photo postcard.  On the back it says: "Miss Pauline Collier,  Porterville Cal.   Nov. 5 1914.  4th Grade".     There's a Pauline Collier listed in the 1910 and 1920 census records for Porterville,  she would have been about 10 years old at the time of this photograph.

Comparing this to other images I have,  this appears to be  Porterville's  Olive Street Grammar School.

A  photo postcard view of Visalia's  Main Street,  looking west,   near its intersection with Garden St.  Circa  1907.

The building to the near left hand side, still stands at 309 E. Main.    It is the building where the Las Palmas  Restaurant was later located.    Just west of this was John Hyde's furniture store.        Across the street from 309 E. Main  is the Harvey House hotel.   According to Terry Ommen's blog,  the Harvey House structure was built around 1904 and it was torn down in 1971.      Down the same side of the street,  at the NW corner of Church and Main St,  is the old Bank of Visalia clock tower.   The 5 story Bank of Italy building now stands at that location (built in 1923).

 This appears to be one of George Besaw's photos,  see the Visalia Armory Building photo I posted on 7/17/2018.    Besaw's armory photo is numbered "171",  and this photo is numbered "168" (in the lower right corner).   Most likely,  Besaw took these images within days of each other.      In the image above, I can just make out a small poster for the play "Peck's Bad Boy" (as was also in the armory photo).     This would seem to indicate, that both of these photographs were taken  around the time of that play;  April 19, 1907.

Photo postcard by Beck, circa 1911.        The big building at the end of the street is the old high school, that was located in the Lincoln Oval.    This appears to be a view looking north from the 500  block of  N. Court Street.    The two-story Victorian home, at the left side of the image, still appears to be at that location.        (Many thanks to the the people at the facebook group Visalia, Gateway to the Sequoias  who pinned down the exact location of this image.)

 

From a postcard, dated 10/4/1909, Lindsay Cal.      Written on the back of the card "This is main street of Lindsay".    I assume that this is Honolulu Street.      One of the businesses here is the Lindsay Drug Co.    According to the 1910 Tulare County directory, this drug store was on Honolulu Street.

Photograph by Robinson & Churchman, circa 1900.        The style of the photograph seems later than 1900.   But apparently the partnership of  Robinson & Churchman had ended by December 1900.     The 12/21/1900 issue of the Daily Visalia  Delta newspaper,  states that the photographer S.E. Churchman had moved to Chico,  and  had opened  a studio there.   

On the back of the photo is written "Dora Garnett".     I would guess that this is Madora (Dameron) Garmett of Visalia (Married to: Marcus Garnett).  She would have been around 28 years old at the time of the photo.    They did have a daughter named Dora, but she would have only been about 6 years old at the time of this photograph.

Photo by Doran Studio of Tulare.  Circa 1910.

An old photo postcard image of the Camp Nelson Hotel, circa 1922.     It was built on the same property as  an earlier version of the hotel, this one  was constructed in 1912.
The image is by Hammond's Studio of Porterville. 

A scan from a glass negatives by Howard Clinton Tibbitts.     He was one of the early Sunset Magazine photographers.  The photo is circa 1911.      Tibbitts listed this image as "Ranch near Visalia".

A small carte de visite portrait, from the studio of A. J. Jones, "Tulare City, California".   Circa 1879. 

 Looking at old voting and census records: It appears  that the photographer Abial J. Jones  worked in Tulare and Fresno Counties from about 1870 to 1900.     Apparently, most of that time was spent in Tulare.        I was a bit surprised by the amount of time he seems to have spent in the Tulare County area...     I have only heard of a few references to A. J. Jone's photographs.

Photograph by Doran Studio of Tulare, circa 1895.

An old photo postcard view of Springville's  Soda Springs, circa 1912.

Written on the back of this postcard: "1923 - Dedication of the Harding Tree in Giant Forest, Calif.".

This sequoia is now more commonly referred to as the President tree.  

An article in the 9/7/1923 issue of  The National Lumber Bulletin states:  "Giant Redwood Dedicated to Memory of Late President  -  A permanent memorial to the late President Harding has just been contributed by California forests...  The second largest tree in the world was dedicated to his memory, August 12,  as the Warren Harding Tree.     In dedicating the giant sequoia...  Col John R. White, superintendent of Sequoia and Grant national parks, declared that..."

Photograph by Eschol M. Hammond, of Porterville.    It's an image of Porterville's  1922 Armistice Day parade.     This is the intersection of Main St. and Putnam Ave.    The Pioneer Hotel is in the background, with  Claubes' Drug Store on the hotel's first floor.    A car race on Main Street was held, as part of the celebration.    A few of the cars are visible here.    It looks like quite a few  men wore their WWI uniforms to the parade.

Close up:

From an old photo postcard.   It's postmarked "Portersville, Cal., 1911". 

 It's addressed to a Mrs. Thomas Pulford of Los Angeles.
The message written on the back of the postcard reads:   "Oct 21 -- Can you find me here?   We went thru this tunnel 1400ft on the little car.    I received your card & two packages of papers today: Thanks for sending them.       H. and I are thinking of going to Porterville this P.M.    I hope my pictures are good.   H. took this. ---- Bertha".
I'm guessing that this was the magnesite mine east of Porterville, that was owned by the Tulare Mining Company.    Several mining journals, of the period, state that this mine had a 1400 foot tunnel.    One journal, published in 1911, indicates that this tunnel was new... So I'm guessing some 'locals' were curious enough to check-out the new tunnel.

Close up:

Photo postcard, circa 1912.   Porterville's  First Congregational Church was built in 1908.   The church still stands today, with some modifications due to a fire.  i.e. The church was built with a gymnasium, auditorium and pool; these areas suffered damage from a fire in 1937; and were taken out.     

It is located on the SE corner of  Mill Ave. and 4th St.    It was added to the  National Register of Historic Places, in 1999.

An old photo postcard, circa 1910.     The photographer was Lindley Eddy.
This is an image of the Lemon Cove railroad depot with a Visalia Electric Railroad passenger car to the right.   These passenger cars were basically electric trolley cars. 

Postcard circa 1916.     This building housed Dinuba's branch of the Tulare County Library as well its  Chamber of Commerce.

Photo postcard, circa 1919.    Dr Shrodes was a physician and an inventor.

A small portrait from the Visalia studio of Kiefer & Sammis.     This photo is heavily damaged and faded, but I include it here because it's the oldest original image from Tulare County, that I own.
On the back of it someone has written: "W. S. Shearer, age 17, Visalia Cal.".     This would most likely be Willow Springs Shearer, who was born 7/16/1849.    If taken when Willow Shearer was 17, it would have been in 1866 or 1867; which would coincide with the dates the studio of Kiefer & Sammis is thought to have been in Visalia (i.e. About 1867).
To put things into historical perspective, this would have been about 5 years before the towns of Tulare and Fresno existed.
You can just make out the powder-horn tucked into his belt, that he would have used for the muzzle-loading rifle.

 An old photo postcard by Hammond's Studio of Porterville.    On the back is written: "Merry Xmas from the Allens to you all. ... Ethel".   And in a different handwriting, is written: "Glen Edward Allen, Age 5 yrs. 1916".
Back then, it was popular to have personal photos printed in the form of a  postcard.
Glen's parents were Edward Loofe Allen and Ethel Stella Ross.
The Allen family was originally from Canada. They are listed in records as living in Plano and then Porterville, from about 1910 to the 1960's.

The Dinuba home of  Jacob Wilburn Jack, circa 1900.      According to the person who sold the photograph, this was one of the first Dinuba homes with indoor plumbing.    The story goes that some of the local residence thought that Mr. Jack was crazy for putting his outhouse indoors!     The home doesn't appear to have electricity at this time, e.g. No visible wires to the house, and the water-tank appears to have an AerMotor wind-powered pump.

Photo postcard image of the General Sherman Tree,  circa 1911.    Lindley Eddy is the photographer.
Close up:

A close-up of the sign, which says: "Wood and Bark of Sequoia Trees, either standing or fallen, will not be molested in this Park.".    I've seen similar signs in old photos of Grant Grove, warning people not to take bark off of trees.    I'm guessing this was a problem with people taking bark and wood  as souvenirs.

Photo by Downey's Art Studio, Tulare.   Circa 1893.

Photograher G. E. Garver,  Porterville.  Circa 1895.

Photograph by Charles Albert Myers.   Voter registration list Myers as living in Porterville in 1896.    Prior to this he had a studio in Visalia, and later I believe he had several studio locations in San Francisco.      Note spelling of Porterville with a middle "s".   This is also how the U.S. Postal Service spelled the town's name, until about 1914.

Photo by Doran (James Turner Doran) of Tulare.  Circa 1892

Another Doran Studio photograph.    Circa 1889.

Photograph by the Visalia studio of S.W. Watrous (Stephen West Watrous), circa 1882.

During this period, that same unusual looking chair appeared in a lot of Watrous's studio photographs.

 An image of the town of Richgrove, circa 1914.    This is a scan from the original glass negative.
Annie R. Mitchell, in her book 'The Way it Was'  (1976),  states that the Reid Land and Development Company started this town in 1909.  The company built this store and the hotel (on the right side of the image) as well as put in streets and sidewalks.    In 1913,  a freeze killed most of the young citrus trees planted in the area; which was one reason  why the town never grew very much.       The photograph was taken by the Cheney Photo Advertising Company.
 Close up:

Close up of the Hotel Richgrove.   This building still stands, its on the south side of Chaney Drive about 200 feet east of  Richgrove Drive (Route J35).

A small photograph by Hammond's Studio of Porterville  (Photographer: Eschol M. Hammond).   Circa 1923.     It appears to be an image of some campers taking  time-out to pose for the camera.

Photograph by Doran Studio of Tulare, circa 1893.

Postcard image of Orosi, circa 1910.
(Update 5/8/20) The Culter-Orosi Courier published a printed postcard using this same image.  They described it as "Looking east on El Monte from Road 127 about 1908."

Postcard image of Lindsay's First Church of the Nazarene, circa 1923.    

The church still stands, it's located on the corner Samoa St. and Gale Hill Ave.

Visalia's Southern Pacific Railroad depot, circa 1906.   Photo postcard by Ramsey.

According to local historian Terry Ommen:   This depot was built in 1893 and served as both the passenger and freight depot.    It was on the southeast corner of  Church St. and Oak Ave.     In 1915, the depot was moved one block to the east so that a new passenger depot could be built on that corner (Which is now the Depot Restaurant).    This old depot was destroyed by arson in 1982.

A postcard view of some groves and fields near Orosi,  circa 1909.

Postcard  of Lindsay's Presbyterian Church, circa 1912.

Photo postcard of Porterville's Main Street,  near the street's intersection with Garden Ave.   Circa 1909.    This is a view looking north.    The Morton Street School can be seen at the northern end of Main St.       The theater building, at the right-center of the image, also housed photographer A. R. Moore's Opera House Studio.      

Close-up:

Photo postcard image of Tulare, circa 1908.   This is a view from Kern Ave, looking down K  St.    The First National Bank is at the left edge of this image,  directly accross K Street from it is Linder's Hardware.   Both these buildings are  still standing.

Photo by A. R. Moore of  Porterville,  circa 1908.
Most likely this is the family of  William Samuel Lawson (aka  Sam Lawson)  of  Plano and Porterville.     His wife's name was Anna and his daughter is Florence.

 

Photograph circa 1914.     On the back of this photo someone has written what looks like: "Chet,   343 S. Mirage"  (or it could possibly be 243 S. Mirage).     The person who sold the photo to me stated that this is an image of Chet Tienken of Lindsay.    I'm guessing that "Chet" is Chester R. Tienken (1910-1993) of Lindsay.   He was the child of Albert C. Tienken and Alberta Mae Cox.   The "343"  matches the street number for his family's house in the 1920 U.S. Census.