In 1908, they thought mail-order catalogs would kill off downtown; little did they know that doom awaited via parking meters a full century later.
Here’s another in a series of public service “booster” ads that appeared in the Santa Rosa Republican between 1907 and 1909. (CLICK to enlarge image.) This gem appeared April 21, 1908, a few days after the second anniversary of the Great Earthquake, when a Press Democrat editorial called on Santa Rosans to shout down critics: “Now as never before the croaker, if he insists upon croaking, and the knocker, if he persists in knocking, must be shoved to the rear…”
