Holtville historic direction post (#0764)

Stopping at Holt Park in Holtville to stretch, I saw this historic direction post. Searching the web I couldn't find information that would give a sense of the age of this type of post or the signage, but pulling together various sources, the signage provides an interesting perspective on travel in the earlier 1900's.

The post clearly was at the intersection of Holt and Fifth, which is the southeast corner of the park (that’s City Hall in the background). Considering the ‘keep right’ at the base of the post, this would appear to have been in the middle of the intersection to provide directions. The rectangular signs with “Auto Club So Cal” at the bottom are a reminder that directional signs were not provided by the state in the early days of auto travel, and that the auto club (now AAA, American Automobile Association) provided signs for drivers. The signs were porcelain on steel and were provided by the auto club from 1910 until the state took over providing such signs in the 1950’s ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_Club_of_Southern_California ). I could not find evidence as to when the specific auto club insignia was used, but per descriptions on the following link, it appears these signs date from somewhere between 1928 and 1933 ( www.caltrafficsigns.com/chronology.php )

Another possible indicator of age of the signs is that the names of the streets lack route numbers. Holt St. is CA-115 which was created in 1934 but not assigned a number until 1956 ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_115 ). Fifth Avenue is part of what was Evan Hewes Highway which in turn was part of the Dixie Overland Highway (circa 1915) which was renamed to US-80 in 1926 when the U.S. highway system was created; US 80 was later shifted to further south of the city ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_80_in_California ). It’s possible, of course, that those streets had Calif and US numbers when the signs were made, but only local names were used.

These signs thus tell us about the role of the state and U.S. government in developing highway systems. Despite the state and federal highways that we’ve been used to for most of our adult lives, the signs are a reminder of how recently all streets were local and there was no national, government-based, uniformity in signage.