San Diego California Morris Ellison Real Estate Office Advertising Real Photo Postcard
This postcard captures an early 20th-century scene of real estate promotion by the Southwestern Investment Co., likely in San Diego, California. Morris Ellison's branch office specialized in lots for "University and Normal Heights Properties," then burgeoning residential areas in the city's expanding suburban landscape. The presence of a horse-drawn buggy and the temporary nature of the office structure indicate a period of active land development, preceding widespread automobile ownership and more permanent sales offices. The "US Grant Hotel" billboard in the background further anchors the location to San Diego, as the hotel opened in 1910.
Such "dollar down, dollar a week" land sales were characteristic of the early 1900s, especially in rapidly growing regions like Southern California. These aggressive marketing tactics, emphasizing rising values and low entry costs, aimed to attract a broad base of buyers to undeveloped tracts, fueling a real estate boom. This period marked significant urban expansion, as cities pushed their boundaries outward, creating new neighborhoods and transforming agricultural or undeveloped land into residential communities.
Such "dollar down, dollar a week" land sales were characteristic of the early 1900s, especially in rapidly growing regions like Southern California. These aggressive marketing tactics, emphasizing rising values and low entry costs, aimed to attract a broad base of buyers to undeveloped tracts, fueling a real estate boom. This period marked significant urban expansion, as cities pushed their boundaries outward, creating new neighborhoods and transforming agricultural or undeveloped land into residential communities.
