Monday, January 10, 2022

Return to Capistrano, January 1959



How about a visit back to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, circa January 1959? Actually, these are most likely from December 1958 as one of the slides in the batch shows Christmas decor. In case you weren’t sure where these were taken, this little boy is helpfully pointing out the obvious.



Any vintage auto fans out there less lazy than me and able to identify the vehicle in the parking lot?



Once inside, this little boy quickly makes a new friend. Obviously, “The Birds” has not been released yet.



For all you signage geeks:



A few more shots of the interior grounds of the Mission:



This kid could have been a bird wrangler for Hitchcock:



You can apparently feed the pigeons…as long as you buy the food on premises!





And now for a few other “mystery” slides that were in the same batch. This Main Street, U.S.A. was not too difficult to figure out.



Zooming in, I can see Highway 101 with markers for L.A. and San Francisco, as well as a marking on the curb for E. Montecito Street. Yes, this is downtown Montecito, circa 1959.



I see Pep Boys and some Hotel blah blah blah....wonder if it’s still there?



Not sure about this one; most likely somewhere along the same journey.



You can see a Standard Gas Station on the right in this dirty detail view:



…and another road shot:



Downtown L.A.?



This last one was date stamped July 1959. No idea on this one.



See more Mission San Juan Capistrano photos at my main website.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The car is a 1953 Mercury Monterey I'm fairly certain.

https://cdn1.mecum.com/auctions/fl0111/fl0111-103223/images/fl0111-103223_1.jpg?1296404299000

Anonymous said...

Yes indeed...that's downtown LA. I remember those natural gas reservoirs....seemed to be the largest structures in the area. I understand that storage nowadays is underground. They were removed a long time ago but it sticks in my memory. KS

Darryl said...

Location found! Dave...your photo #NO9B of a little ol' 4-way stop on E. Montecito street is now WEST Montecito street on an overpass of State Street on Hwy 1/101 in Santa Barbara. The big identifier is the spikey "S" building on the right.

34.4151572438501, -119.69325011662667

- Darryl

Mark said...

One of my favorite places to visit in California is this mission.

Daveland said...

I have the best readers! Thanks for all the ID's!!

Darryl said...

One more...The "Hotel blah blah" is the Hotel Barbara.

https://www.hotelsantabarbara.com/history/