Coronado ("the crowned one" in Spanish) is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, across (and helping to form) San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. It lies on geographic combination of an island and a tombolo connected to the mainland called the Silver Strand. Founded in 1885, the town was from the very beginning a resort community, and since 1888 is the home to the famous Hotel del Coronado, long considered one of the world's top resorts. The hotel, designed and is one of the few surviving examples of an American architectural genre: the wooden Victorian beach resort. It is also the second largest wooden structure in the United States (after the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook, Oregon).
Designed and erected by Reid & Reid, the buiding counted numerous innovations. To deal with fire hazards, a freshwater pipeline was run under San Diego Bay. Reid installed the world's first oil furnace in the new hotel, and electric lighting in a hotel was also a world first. The electric wires were installed inside the gas lines, so if the electricity didn't work, they could always pipe gas in to illuminate the rooms. Thomas Edison inspected himself the final electrical installation. Hotel del Coronado has hosted presidents, royalty, and celebrities through the years. L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, did much of his writing at the hotel, and is said to have based his design for the Emerald City on it.
About the stamps
The first stamp, depicting Alyssum, belongs to a series featuring 10 images from vintage flower seed packets, about which I wrote here. About the second, featuring a portrait of George Washington, I wrote here. The last stamp, depicting American Landscape (1930) by Charles Sheeler, are part of the series Modern Art in America: 1913-1931, about which I wrote here.
References
Hotel del Coronado - Wikipedia
Sender: Denise
Sent from Greenvale (New York / United States), on 06.03.2014
Photo: John Bahu
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