1870 / 1960 Katzakian Bird's Eye View of Lodi, California

This is a c. 1960s reprint of a c. 1870 bird's eye view of Lodi, California, today known as the 'Zinfandel Capital of the World'. The view illustrates the ever-growing town from the southeast. Streets throughout town are labeled, as are the Central Pacific Railroad and the Mokelumne River. Fifteen locations in and around town are numerically identified and correspond with an index situated on either side of the title, including the school house, the Sargent Hotel, the livery stable, and the Methodist church. The last two places in the index are Mt. Diablo and the Coast Range Mountains, which are depicted in the distance. Twenty views of buildings around town frame the central view and provide illustrations of the Lodi flouring mills, Salem School, the Sargent House (Hotel), the Perkins Photograph Gallery, and eleven private residences, among other locations around town.

How We Dated This View

The only other known example of this view that we have been able to trace is part of the collection at the California State Library in Sacramento. That example is dated as 1850, but we have chosen to date our as c. 1870 due to the presence of the Central Pacific Railroad line through town, which did not begin operations until 1869 when the Central Pacific opened a depot in town.

Publication History and Census

As this broadside is unsigned, we do not for certain who created and published this view. We do know that it was distributed as promotional material for Katzakian and Schaffer, a real estate firm based in Lodi that was founded by 'Bo' Katzakian and Ben Shaffer. That said, this view is extremely rare as we have only been able to locate the example in the collection at the California State Library in Sacramento.