Snapshots of agricultural scenes, probably taken during the 1920s, on lands belonging to H. J. (Hobart Johnstone) Whitley, possibly near Corcoran, California, in the San Joaquin Valley, east of Paso Robles.

California real estate developer and banker. Hobart Johnstone Whitley came to Southern California in the mid-1880s after following the westward expansion of the frontier railroads across the country, and successfully founding scores of towns throughout the Oklahoma Territory, Dakotas, and Texas . As a major investor in the Los Angeles Pacific Boulevard and Development Co., Whitley, along with associates Harrison Gray Otis and George W. Hoover, was responsible for much of the development of land at the south end of the Cahuenga Pass known as the Hollywood Ocean View Tract, as well as a commercial district on Highland Ave. He organized a land syndicate in 1909 to develop the southern end of the San Fernando Valley, creating the towns of Van Nuys, Reseda, and Canoga Park on 47,500 acres of farmland formerly owned by wheat magnate Isaac Newton Van Nuys. Whitley also purchased large tracts of land further north in the San Joaquin Valley, where he built the city of Corcoran, although he died in 1931 before his last development, Whitley Gardens east of Paso Robles, was completed.

1 album (46 photographic prints) : b&w, 11 x 17 cm (album)

Photographs (9.3 x 15 cm) are mounted on recto and verso of 24 leaves of black paper, without captions.

Bound in limp dark red patterned leather covers, with blind-stamped ornamental border; covers tied with black silk cord; retailer's black and white label on inside back cover: "Earl. V. Lewis Co. Developing, Printing, Enlarging, Framing, 226 W. 4th St., 421 W. 7th St., Los Angeles, Calif."

Spec. Coll. copy: in modern beige and white woven cloth clamshell box with velcro closure; spine title "Whitley. Paso Robles."

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