Old photo postcard, postmarked January 1912.    The caption reads: "Court Street Looking North Visalia Cal.", by Beck.    The corner tower, or 'cupola', at left center is the Holt Block building; which was at the NW corner of Main and Court Streets (Where Starbucks is now).

Terry Ommen mentions this photo on his blog, he states: "...it shows Mt. Whitney Power Company when it leased office space in the S. C. Brown building on the east side of Court. In 1912 Mt. Whitney Power built a new building on W. Main Street (where Quality Jewelers is now.)"



Photo by "Robinson & Weishar,  Visalia, Cal".  Circa 1906.   This gentleman appears to be wearing a Masonic ceremonial uniform.



Photo postcard of a Tulare, CA school;  circa 1907.

According to Derryl A. Dumermuth's book  A Town Called Tulare (2002),  this school was built around 1885 as a elementary school.   High school classes began there in 1890.   One of the unique features of this building was the four-faced clock placed above the belfry (just visible at the top of this photograph).

Photo postcard of  Porterville.  Circa 1907.   A view looking east on Main St., between Oak and Mill Avenues.

 Here's a cabinet card photograph of a Chinese boy in traditional dress, including the queue hair braid.

From the studio of  P. F. Adelsbach (Percy F. Adelsbach),  Tulare  CA.  Circa 1900. 

 P. F. Adelsbach apparently closed his Tulare studio in 1901 and opened a photo studio in Porterville. 

By 1905,  Adelsbach was the editor and publisher of The Kingsburg Recorder and The Western Bee Journal.   Apparently at one time he was also the publisher of the Porterville Daily Recorder.

 Girl on a chair.   Photo by Beck, Holt Block, Visalia, CA.   (circa 1895)

"Holt Block" was a large two story building at the NW corner of Court and Main St. 

 This cabinet card photo is by E. M. Davidson,  Visalia.   (circa 1890)

This is from a photo postcard, un-mailed.  (circa 1905).

On the back of the card someone has written:  "Dinuba, looking east".

This is a cabinet card photograph by C. A. Myers (Charles Albert Myers), Visalia CA (circa 1890-1895).  This appears to be an image of six teenagers in costumes.   Hard to tell what the subject matter at hand was...  e.g. Several of the girls seem to be dressed like maids wearing black armbands, the young man is wearing a coat & top-hat with a sash across his chest.  And there is a banner in the background with an unusual symbol on it.
Perhaps they were putting on a play. (?)

In 1893, a fire apparently started in C. A. Myers' photo-lab which destroyed his studio and did a considerable amount of damage to the large "Holt Block" building.   An article linked here talks about that fire, and the possibility of spontaneous combustion of certain photographic materials.  Note that on the same page as this article it mentions that H.C.Tandy's Hanford photo gallery  was also destroyed by a  fire around the same time. (See my 9/4/12 post of Tandy pictures).
(Added 1/28/17):  C. A. Myers maybe the same photographer ("Charles A. Myers")  who owned Myers Studio on O'Farrell Street in San Francisco, during the 1910's & 1920's.    e.g.  According to voting and census records, both the Visalia and Bay Area photographer "Charles A. Myers" were born in Iowa around 1868.   This San Francisco studio did a lot of lobby display photographs for theatrical groups.

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Below are two photo postcards showing the cast of the cantata  Esther, the Beautiful Queen .
Visalia CA, 1915.

The reference to "1st  M. E. - Visalia Cailf.", might mean that this program was performed at the Visalia First Methodist Episcopal Church.



On the back of this postcard is written:  "Left to Right:  Mr. Parsons,  Mrs. Payne,  Mrs Snow,  Mr. Masters.   Queen Esther Cantata.  1915".  The cantata referred to here is probably the one composed by William B. Bradbury with Chauncey M. Cady and R. W. Seager: i.e.  Esther, The Beautiful Queen: a cantata or short oratorio.

(Added 5/9/18)  I recently found another photo postcard of this church play.

On the back of it is written: "Mr & Mrs Payne as Haman & Zerish, & baby, in Queen Esther Cantata.  1915.   1st M.E. Church - Visalia."

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Photo by "Robinson & Churchman, Holt Block. Visalia, Cal.". (circa 1900).

I believe the men in this picture are members of the  I.O.O.F. (The Odd Fellows) in their ceremonial dress.