The Antique Society premises in Sebastopol

This afternoon, I visited the Antique Society collective in Sebastopol, shown above. There are usually some interesting items available there, and on this occasion I found a couple of pieces of ephemera. Every time I visit, I can never be sure what I’ll find.

The building itself is quite interesting, being one of the few Art Deco structures in the Wine Country. It was originally the Henderson Furnace Factory, and was presumably cutting-edge architecture when it was built in the 1930s.

Today, I found two interesting historical items. The first is an old postcard of the Tokyo Imperial Hotel. This is a famous building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The postcard is also quite well-known, and a copy appears on the Wikipedia page describing the hotel. My copy is unused, but it’s fairly easy to date it and understand why it’s unused, because there’s an imprint on the back.

Tokyo Imperial Hotel Postcard

The 1940 Tokyo Olympic Games never took place, being canceled because of World War II. Looks like this postcard was printed in anticipation, and then found to be useless!

My other lucky find originated on this side of the Pacific Ocean. It’s a small advertising flyer for several San Francisco area attractions. The flyer is dated in pencil “1911”, and includes an advertisement for the Triangle Trip, which was a rail journey that you could take from the ferry terminal at Sausalito, and which was very popular until the growth of personal motoring in the 1920s.

Triangle Trip Rail Route, 1911

You could take the North Western Pacific route from Sausalito (right hand side of the triangle) to Fulton, then the Fulton & Guerneville Railroad along the Russian River (top of the triangle) to Monte Rio, and finally return via the North Pacific Coast railroad (left hand side of the triangle).

The narrow-gauge North Pacific Coast route closed completely in 1930, which removed one side of the triangle. Perhaps amazingly, the North Western Pacific on the right-hand side of the triangle still exists, and SMART trains will start running on part of the route (from San Rafael to beyond Fulton) later this year.