Take a look back at vintage Knott’s Berry Farm – the California amusement park known as a Disneyland alternative, but one that boasted its very own ghost town.
Here’s a look back at vintage Southern California and Los Angeles, as the old visitors’ bureaus used to show it off to potential tourists back in the sixties!
Lake Almanor’s great beauty and immense expanse captivate the imagination. Amidst the pine forests, when built, it was the largest power reservoir in the United States.
Here is how the builders of this small home in the ’50s made the most of the space they had available! Take a look at the decor and floorplan here.
Here, take a look back at old Lake Tahoe – the big, beautiful lake that has been a popular vacation spot for generations.
Known as the speaking clock or POPCORN, calling the phone company for the time was a handy service helped people reset clocks years ago.
Here’s a look at Cary Grant’s home – a 2-story, 12-room stucco house on the exclusive beach at Santa Monica, where the famous actor lived in the 1940s.
These gorgeous vintage in-ground swimming pools go beyond the basic – with unusual shapes, specialty finishes, and other refreshingly retro ideas.
Even today, there are ships buried under downtown San Francisco that you might walk over, on land reclaimed from the Bay thanks to the Gold Rush.
See what it took to get the Golden Gate Bridge built, plus see dozens of pictures of the construction, and the celebration when it finally opened in 1937.
Sambo’s Restaurants were popular in the ’60s and ’70s. But as much as people loved the diners, the company name was always a problem. Here’s why.
Warm up with a look back at 25 different beautiful old-fashioned fireplaces that were once found in homes across the US.
Camp Roberts, in central California, was one of the military’s top training sites during World War II. Here’s a peek at what life was like there.
What was Walter Matthau’s house like back in the ’70s? His wife Carol said that they gave it a country look and country feeling. Take a peek inside!
Inside the rambling 160-room Winchester Mystery House, doors lead into blank walls, staircases end in midair, trap doors spring to the floors below, and elevators rise through the roof.
This unusual home in the hills of Oakland, California is tree house – with a modernist design – belonging to Dave Brubeck, known as ‘Mr. Jazz’ to his fans.
Imagine strolling these tree-lined streets and seeing these mansions and estates in beautiful old Pasadena, California, around the turn of the century.
This popular fast food chain started small in the ’50s, but grew the business & kept the menu small. Look back at vintage Taco Bell restaurants & food here!
Look back at more than 200 vintage license plates issued through the 20th century – including ones for every American state & territory – plus some special plates, too.
Gus Wagner, one of the first tattoo professionals, and with him on the circus sideshow marquee was his wife Maud Wagner, the famous Tattooed Woman.
In 1978, singer Helen Reddy took a photographer on a tour of her California home, which was full of music, plants and country charm.
Dinah Shore’s home in Beverly Hills is where the popular star relaxes with friends for good talk, good food, good tennis and good times. See inside her house from ’60s & the ’70s!
The history of Levi’s jeans shows that the power of a really good idea – like super-durable clothing that people like to wear – can make for a business that stays strong for more than 160 years.
What were jitterbugs jiving to in the late ’30s & early ’40s? For one, the Lindy Hop dance, with hundreds of individual steps, breaks and mutations inspired by American music.
The most dramatic and best-known story of railroading in the United States is the connecting of the Atlantic and the Pacific by railroad in 1869, tying of the oceans together by rail across the heart of the United States
These are some of the very first reports of the Loma Prieta quake back on October 17, 1989 that devastated so much of the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 1971, the latest and greatest addition to Walt Disney’s empire of imagination opened: Disney World. See what the theme park originally looked like here!
Actor James Dean, a young Hollywood idol, was killed on September 30, 1955, in a head-on car crash. Here’s how the story was reported, and then a look back from a year later.
See scenes from the San Diego’s World’s Fair – a venue with gorgeous scenic beauty in a matchless climate – that took place from 1915 to 1917.
Get 25 tips on how to conserve water inside and outside your home, developed in 1977, during California’s drought.
The popular and highly-acclaimed ‘Little House on the Prairie’ TV series was based on the beloved books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, about the pioneer days.
How did the great Gold Rush of 1849 get started? Find out its history, how it made people rich and poor – and helped make California what it is today.
CHiPS, a light-hearted one-hour action-adventure series, follows the exploits of a pair of young California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers on the busy Los Angeles freeways, and their encounters with the infinite variety of people who drive there.
From the middle of the destruction after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, these detailed accounts of the damage were published in the city’s newspaper the very next morning.
Take a little 60-year leap back in time, and see how San Francisco looked back in 1955 in this video homage to the city by the bay.
Take a look back at actress Elizabeth Montgomery — from the early days of her career in 1955 up until her 1972 heyday!
In 1906, a short film called ‘A Trip Down Market Street’ ended up being a valuable record of San Francisco just before the huge earthquake and fire destroyed much of the city.
Although the story below was the topic of the 1994 made-for-TV movies Death of a Cheerleader/A Friend to Die For, this story has personal meaning, because I was another teen girl at the same school.
Dive back into the past with these 16 views of beautiful San Francisco in the ’70s – from the skyscrapers to the bridges and everything in between.
See a collection of newspaper clippings immediately after the murder of Kirsten Costas, chroniciling the immediate news reports about the crime and the community’s shock, and some of the police work involved in the effort to find the killer.
No words could so vividly portray the way the 19th century San Francisco skyline changed over a few short decades. Take a look back!
The golden poppy was named California’s official State flower in 1903, and the orange blossom is now popularly known as the California Poppy.
Pacific Southwest Airlines executives ‘appreciate beauty and grace in women and, what’s most important, they don’t mind admitting that we are the ones who make them look good.’ Yep, it was the ’60s.
At the start of the Watts Riots, rumors of police brutality during an arrest quickly spread, and a crowd began to form. It was the flashpoint for rioting and rebellion that had been simmering under the surface of Los Angeles that summer.
California — particularly Los Angeles — is notorious for having awful traffic — but as this video from the ’50s will prove, that bumper-to-bumper freeway crawl is nothing new.
It’s incredible to see how awesome — in size, in design, in popularity — old-fashioned indoor swimming pools could be. Here, take a look at 10 gorgeous pools from days gone by!
See up close the destruction after San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake in these colorized photos taken shortly after the fire was put out.
Los Angeles in the ’50s Easy Guide to a Cool Southern California Summer Vacation (1953) Metropolitan Los Angeles in the ’50s Around town, you’ll find
Surrounded by a flood of music as the boat glides along, one scene merges into another as the children of the Disneyland ride ‘It’s a Small World’ sing and dance to the show’s lilting title tune.
Bringing you the finest in family entertainment, Disneyland is reaching for the stars like never before!
Stanford University in California got its start all because a boy died from Typhoid fever, and his parents so grieved his loss, they put millions into creating this college in his name.
The old steamship City of Chester sank just inside the Golden Gate in the San Francisco Bay – but she was rediscovered more than 100 years later.
The real death of a cheerleader story (1985) 
Women: Do you have the ideal figure? Here’s what ‘they’ thought in 1950 
Woodstock: What people said the famous music festival was REALLY like (1969) 
Hershey’s rich cocoa fudge recipe from the ’70s & ’80s 
Have a crafty Christmas! Retro holiday decor you can make with ideas from the ’60s Want to remember to remember? Our weekly newsletter shows you the latest vintage, old-fashioned & historic stuff that we have published or refreshed during the past seven days. Sign up here.
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