A POSTSCRIPT TO LA CASA DEL CAMINO, LAGUNA'S FIRST 'MODERN HOSTELRY'
By Andrea Adelson

T hese two '20s era images of Laguna Beach's La Casa del Camino convey in vivid detail the appointments of a "modern hostelry," as the South Coast News described the hotel when it opened with much fanfare in January 1929.

The Laguna Beach Historical Society acquired the images from a collector earlier this month, not long after the historic hotel's 80th anniversary. The images surfaced too late to be included in the narrative commissioned and published about the hotel's first decade by the current proprietor, Christopher Keller. The Independent's Feb. 1 history was based on that narrative.

The new images, distilling the era with time-capsule clarity, come courtesy of Tom Pulley, of Orange. A collector of stamps, pharmacy glass, orange crate labels and postcards, he has amassed 10,000 historical photos of Orange County scenes taken early in the last century and printed on uncirculated postcards. He started collecting 40 years ago, attending eight to 10 antique shows a year around the state where dealers display their newest postcard finds. He would typically find no more than three at a time that suited his geographically restricted area of specialization. Now that photo cards, typically shot by professionals and of high fidelity, can cost upwards of $100 each, Pulley's collection shows no more growth than a tree ring in a drought year.

"My whole collection is housed in a book case," he said. "I've always been interested in the history of Orange County," said Pulley, a native of Los Angeles who grew up in Tustin. He retired in 2000 after working for a vegetable and flower seed company. He's spent the most recent five years in retirement writing a book on the county's now extinct citrus industry.

The Casa del Camino images are but two of 1,100 Laguna Beach postcards in Pulley's trove. He ventured to Laguna hoping the Historical Society had images he could borrow to supplement his own of the 1921 Peace Pipe Pageant, progenitor of the Pageant of the Masters.