If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 689

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coit Tower, San Francisco, California

 

Featured on this unused Selithco [Security Lithograph Co.] True Color, from Ektachrome, postcard is a photograph of Coit Memorial Tower, San Francisco, California.  The card was published by E F. Clements of San Francisco.  The number 1652 and a blurb appear at the upper left corner on the reverse.  The blurb:  “Coit Memorial Tower, Pioneer Park, San Francisco, is on the summit of Telegraph Hill.  The glass enclosed observation gallery atop the slim fluted-concrete column, is 540 feet above the water of the Bay, affording a view of the entire Bay Area.”

 

Also known as Coit Tower, it was built between 1932 and 1933 using a bequest from Lillie Hitchcock Coit to beautify the city of San Francisco.  In 2008 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.  The tower is constructed of unpainted reinforced concrete and designed by architects Arthur Brown, Jr., and Henry Temple Howard.  It has an Art Deco style that was popular during the 1930s.  Fresco murals in the American Social Realism style were painted by 22 different onsite artists and assistants.  Other artworks were completed on canvas offsite. 

 

The views from the tower of San Francisco from Telegraph Hill are spectacular.  There were two bequests from the Coit estate.  One was to honor volunteer firemen, the other to beautify the city.  Some have confused the two and erroneously claimed that the design of Coit tower resembles a fire hose nozzle.  However, the monument to the firemen is in the form of statuary located in Washington Square and is not connected with the tower.  Above the main entrance to the tower there is a concrete relief of a phoenix by sculptor Robert Boardman Howard.  The relief was commissioned by the architect and cast as part of Coit Tower. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coit_Tower

 

 

If this is Thursday this must be postcards, 688

 

 

 

 

 

Laie Hawaii Temple

[photo by Loye Guthrie]

 

This unused postcard features a color photograph of the Laie Hawaii Temple by Loye Guthrie.  It is a Mirro-Krome Card by H.S. Crocker Co., Inc. of San Bruno, California and published by Hawaiian Service, Inc. of Honolulu, Hawaii.  There is a blurb at the lower left corner on the reverse:  “The beautiful Hawaii Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is at Laie on the windward side of the island of Oahu near the Polynesian Cultural Center and the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University.  Construction of the temple was undertaken in 1916 and completed three years later.  The temple is one of the earliest examples of architectural concrete in America.”

 

The temple is located about 35 miles or 56 km from Honolulu and sits on a small hill ½ miles from the Pacific Ocean in the town of Laie.  As the blurb mentioned it is near the Polynesian Cultural Center and the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University.  The Visitor center attracts more than 100,000 visitors annually.  Groundbreaking for the temple occurred in 1915 with the temple completed by 1919 and dedicated by Heber J. Grant.  Since then the temple was expanded in 1978 and rededicated by Spencer W. Kimball, and then after seismic upgrades and remodeling it was rededicated again in 2010.  This temple is the oldest temple to operate outside of Utah and is the 5^th oldest temple still in operation. 

 

 

Laie Hawaiian Temple, 2008

 

 

George Q. Cannon, BoPa (aka FarFar)’s great-grandfather, was among the first 10 missionaries to arrive in Hawaii in 1850.  There is a statue with a commemorative plaque of him and Jonathan Napela on the grounds of the cultural center.  When were there in 2008 we visited the cultural center and took a picture.  

 

 

 

George Q. Cannon and Jonathan Napela

 

Commemorative plaque

 

 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laie_Hawaii_Temple