San Francisco's Prettiest Ladies

Postcard US-4032025 to Germany shows an aerial view of  "Painted Ladies," a term in American architecture used for Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings painted in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details. The card is one of those from Above San Francisco postcard book.

Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling in California on final day of campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders is ending the night with a get-out-the-vote concert in San Francisco featuring Dave Matthews, Fantastic Negrito, Fishbone and actor Danny Glover; Clinton stages her own closing musical event with stars Christina Aguilera, Andra Day, John Legend, Ricky Martin, and Stevie Wonder in the Los Angeles area.

Earlier, AP and other news organizations find Hillary Clinton has secured enough delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, breaking a high glass ceiling for women.

Campus Map of Peking University

In celebration of the Homecoming Day for Peking University's alumni, and the 118th university's anniversary, today's featured postcard was a private swap from China, showing a hand-painted campus map of Peking University (北京大学) on a shaped card. Found in 1898, it is a major Chinese research university located near the Summer Palace in Beijing.

The university moved to the current site in 1952, the former campus of Yenching University, It was the site of royal imperial gardens in the Qing Dynasty. On the map, you can see many historical structures such as the West Gate, beautiful natural landscape such as the Weiming Lake, as well as the academic buildings such as the library.

Chinatown, San Francisco

Postcard US-3934037 to Germany is a reproduction of a vintage poster of the Chinatown in San Francisco, California. It shows the Cathay House Restaurant located in the heart of Chinatown with a lengthy traditional Chinese menu and a prime street view for people and cable car watching on California Street.

"San Francisco Sees a Colorful History Slip Away in Chinatown" by Jean H. Lee, run on Los Angeles Times on May 31, 1998, was an interesting article to read about the changes and conflicts that had happened there: "while old-timers want to maintain the district's antique, if stylistically bogus, architecture, recent immigrants are clamoring for new development."

United States Post Office at Phoenix, Arizona

Postcard US-3372307 to Poland was a 1950s vintage card of a street view looking north on 1st Avenue past the west entrance to the U.S. Post Office in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Just North is the Hotel Westward Ho.

Also known as Federal Building-U.S. Post Office, it opened on September 29, 1936 and operated as the main post office of Phoenix for over thirty years, A landmark in downtown Phoenix, the Federal Building-Post Office was symbolic of the federal presence as it also hosted several other Federal agencies.

It is currently part of Arizona State University at the Downtown Phoenix campus. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 10, 1983, the Post Office features Spanish Colonial Revival architectural design.

Old Saint Petersburg, Russia

Postcard RU-3302574 from Russia shows the main facade of the Stock Exchange Building at Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1903. According to Wikipedia, the Stock Exchange Building, designed by French architect Thomas de Thomon, and inspired by the Greek Temple of Hera at Paestum,  was constructed between 1805 and 1810. The Rostral Columns erected on either side of the Stock Exchange were completed in 1811. One of the columns can be seen on the left side of the postcard.

The Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and the Rostral Columns are significant examples of Greek Revival architecture.

The postmark indicates that the card was mailed on December 22, 2014 and had traveled more than 120 days.

Kenmore, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Outgoing postcard US-3208612 to Germany was a vintage card showing Kenmore, a plantation house built in 1752 at Fredericksburg, Virginia. It is a beautiful specimen of colonial architecture with ornamented ceilings and mantels designed by George Washington. It is home of Col. Fielding Lewis and his wife Betty, the only sister of George Washington. George Washington sent two Hessian prisoners to carry out his artistic conception.

The house was added to National Register of Historic Places on June 4, 1969, and was declared a National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970.

There are similar cards from the Tichnor Brothers Postcard Collection at Boston Public Library.

Piazza dei Miracoli

Postcard IT-278165 from Italy shows the Piazza dei Miracoli, which means "Square of Miracles", a wide walled area located in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. It is recognized for it's important role in European medieval art and architecture. Owned by the Catholic Church, the square is dominated by the Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistry, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Camposanto Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery). It also hosts the New Hospital of the Holy Spirit that houses the Sinopias Museum and the Cathedral Museum. The Piazza dei Miracoli became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

The Heritage in Negeri Sembilan

Postcard from Malaysia shows "the Heritage in Negeri Sembilan." Negeri Sembilan, one of Malaysia's thirteen states, is located on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia just south of Kuala Lumpur. Its heritage is believed to be heavily influenced by the Minangkabau people who were originally from West Sumatra in present-day Indonesia. Minangkabau features are visible on the card in traditional architecture and local artifacts.

On an unrelated note, news related to Malaysia has focused on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, missing since March 8, 2014. DigitalGlobe, an earth-imagery company, deployed its FirstLook service and directed two of its five satellites to obtained photos of more than 1,200 square miles of suspected crash area, and opened  its crowdsourcing platform, Tomnod, to the public for help in identifying any visible evidence that could help locate the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

I was assigned this map, did you see anything? However, CNN recently reports that Malaysian plane may have flown long after last contact, which would place the plane outside the initial search area.

Floriade World Horticultural Expo

It is Thanksgiving today! To celebrate a harvest season, I would like to note Postcard NL-1895799 from the Netherlands that features Floriade, a World Horticultural Expo staged once every ten years in the Netherlands. The most recent Floriade was organized in Venlo from April to mid-October 2012. It was the sixth Floriade where the world's most exquisite and exceptional flowers, plants, trees and fruit and vegetables were on display.

However, Floriade offered more with a collection of music, dance, literature, theater and visual art programs from all over the world. What impressed me most was its sustainable, pioneering architectural components shown for the first time at Floriade. Guess I will have to mark my calendar for 2022.

Druzhba Sanatorium, Yalta, Ukraine

Postcard RU-1999185, arrived yesterday from Russia, was titled Yalta: The Students' Hostel "Druzhba". I had immediate suspicion that it was a little more than a hostel just from its appearance. With some research, it turns out to be one of the strangest buildings in the world.

Druzhba is a Slavic word for friendship. Druzhba Sanatorium (Friendship Spa), or Druzhba Holiday Center, was a joint venture between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia in the 1980s, overlooking a popular Black Sea beach 8 km from the then exclusive Soviet resort town of Yalta. The cylindrical shaped complex supported by giant cement legs, was built between 1983 to 1985 by Ukrainian architect Igor Vasilevsky and engineer Yurij Stefanchuk. It was space themed to commemorate the first cosmonaut Vladimír Remek from Czech on board the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 28, launched on March 2, 1978, and the first Czechoslovak satellite Magion 1, launched as a Soviet scientific S/C hitchhiker on October 24, 1978. Not surprisingly as in the Cold War, its odd shaped, earthquake-resistant construction draw attentions from Turkey across the Black Sea as well as the United States, who suspected that the structure could be some sort of rocket launcher or missile silo. 

You can find out more from an article at Architectuul.com with a gallery of 14 photos and drawings. Sebastian Waack from Waack.org also wrote a fascinating story about it. For current availability and pricing, you can visit their reservation web site online.

  

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