Friday, July 31, 2015

SIDEWALK SIGNATURES
Frank W. Hopkins

Long Beach’s sidewalks contain impressed “signatures” of many construction companies and contractors who plied their trade in the city. If your ancestor owned or worked for one of those companies, our “Sidewalk Signatures” series will be of interest to you.

photo: QHGS

Frank W. Hopkins was a cement contractor who lived in Long Beach at 431 Bonito Avenue with his wife Margaret. He poured the pavement shown above on March 29, 1924. Mr. Hopkins followed a circuitous route to Long Beach. Born in England, he arrived in Québec, Canada, on his way to British Columbia. From there he went to Oregon, and then travelled to Long Beach where he lived for about five years, according to city directories. By 1930 he was residing with his family in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Address Source: Long Beach City Directory 1923; Western Directory Company: Seaside Printing Co., Long Beach, California, ©1923.

RESEARCH TIP: As your Blogger has mentioned before, don't put off photographing important sites in your town. The picture above was taken only a few weeks ago, and today this “sidewalk signature” is gone for good, recycled into concrete rubble which will lie under new cement sidewalks when the California Heights repaving project is completed.  

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