25 April 2013

Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #33: Another 1940s La Vida Mineral Springs Real Photo Postcard

This ca. 1940s real photo postcard of the old hotel and bath house at La Vida Mineral Springs looks northeast from the parking area near the cafĂ© and appears to be taken by a visitor rather than by a photographer hired by the resort.  Click on it to see a larger view in a separate window.
This is the second of three real photo postcards of the La Vida Mineral Springs, located on the Brea side of Carbon Canyon just a short distance east of Olinda Village on the north side of Carbon Canyon Road.

The view is an interesting one, the photographer standing near the parking lot and just behind a wood fence that paralleled Carbon [Canyon] Creek with the road behind and looking northeastward towards the "Hotel & Bath House."  This would be the older building that was rocked by an explosion in the late 1950s (and which event was discussed in a recent post here.)  Later, a new hotel structure was erected on the site and this was the one destroyed by fire in the late 1980s.

Meantime, there is a one-story structure in front of the hotel/bath house with a red clay tile roof, while a man stands looking at the camera and a woman is at the right turned the other way.  A bit of the hills to the north and easy peek out over the roof line of the two-story hotel/bath house.

This seems to indicate, along with the unusual view, that these cards were taken by a visitor and not by the Springs as an advertising, promotional and souvenir vehicle.  Besides, there is no publishing information on the back of the card, which is postally unused.  As noted in the previous post, the EKC (Eastman Kodak Company) stamp box found on this card is dated from 1930-1950.

Real photo cards were really just photos printed on postcards rather than photo paper and were heavily used by shutterbugs from the early 1900s onward, though by the 1940s, when these were presumably made, they were not in vogue any longer.

The third and final of this series of La Vida RPPCs will be posted next month.

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