Rare c. 1940 Thomas Bros. block book mapping Hillsborough and Burlingame’s elite Bay Area estates and landowners.
Thomas Bros Block Book of Burlingame and Hillsborough.
$3,500
1 in stock
Description
This is a highly scarce c. 1940 block book of Hillsborough and Burlingame in San Mateo County, California.
The block book or cadastral atlas consists of 94 individual map sheets with a key map in the front and block index in the back. The sheets provide comprehensive coverage of individual lots in Burlingame and Hillsborough with their sizes and property owners noted. Most of the maps include handwritten annotations, including the subdivision of lots and changes in ownership.
The names of property owners in part constitute a “who’s who” of Bay Area and California grandees, including the Crocker, Hearst, Tobin, Ghirardelli, and Spreckels families, as well as the storied Carolands estate.
Lesser known property owners were nevertheless important to the history of the Bay Area. For instance, several properties belong to S. (Simeon) Waldo Coleman (1881 – 1972), a banking executive who was the last president of the American National Bank before it was merged with Security Bank and Trust Company to become the American Bank of San Francisco. In addition to individual landowners, other properties are owned by utilities, railroads (the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific), and the cities of Hillsborough and Burlingame.
Publication information
This atlas is extremely rare, with the only other known example being held by Stanford University (OCLC 1009085411), though this may be an earlier edition. Stanford dates its example to the 1920s, but the address and phone number used by Thomas Bros. here (773-17th St. Oakland Glencourt 1 -6756, 2308 Market St. San Francisco Underhill 1-1256) are consistent with their address in the early-mid 1950s. The Stanford example also has a slightly different title and seemingly a slightly different number of pages.
In any event, this is an extremely rare and possibly unique surviving example of this work.
Cartographer(s):
Thomas Bros. Maps, the publishers of the Thomas Guide, previously known as Popular Street Atlas, Street Guide, and Popular Atlas, was started in Oakland, California, in 1915 by cartographer George Coupland Thomas and his two brothers, who were business partners. Early publications were detailed block maps, bird eye view of communities, road & highway maps, and what would be generally referred as generalized tourist maps.
Condition Description
Wear along the edge of a handful of pages, repaired on the verso with archival tape. Even toning throughout. Overall, in excellent condition.
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