Antique & Vintage Postcards

Sun-bleached and vivid in classic mid-century chrome color, this aerial view sweeps down Avenida Adolfo Lopez Mateos — Ensenada's famous "Motel Row" — toward the sparkling Pacific harbor, with the dramatic headland of Punta Banda closing the distance like a stage curtain. The Cortez Motel Apartments sign blazes in neon on the right, period American sedans cruise the wide boulevard, and bougainvillea-draped rooftops hint at the leisurely Baja California lifestyle that drew thousands of California vacationers south each weekend during the postwar boom. Named for Mexican president Adolfo López Mateos (in office 1958–1964), the avenida was the spine of tourist Ensenada, lined with sportfishing outfitters, seafood restaurants, and exactly the kind of motor-court lodgings shown here. The back caption boasts of "the best fishing on the Pacific Coast" — a claim Ensenada's charter-boat captains would not have disputed. Never mailed; priced in pencil at 25¢, the original retail price.