Antique & Vintage Postcards

A sweep of sun-warmed facades rises above San Diego Bay in this vivid linen-era view — yellow and cream towers crowd the downtown waterfront while a railway corridor and low warehouse rooflines anchor the foreground, capturing the city's confident mid-century growth just before World War II transformed the harbor forever. The colorized image was shot and copyrighted by W. E. Averett of San Diego, printed under catalog number 4515 by Western Publishing & Novelty Co. of Los Angeles, a prolific regional house whose linen cards documented the booming American West throughout the 1930s. The reverse is unused and clean, with the stamp box marked "Place One Cent Stamp Here," consistent with the 1-cent domestic postcard rate in force from 1928 to 1952, helping date the card to the late 1930s.