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When Ernie Byfield opened The Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel on October 1, 1938, he undoubtedly had little idea that he was beginning an enterprise that would still be thriving to this day. Today, The Pump Room remains highly acclaimed restaurant and Chicago landmark. Located in Chicago’s Gold ... Read More »

The Panama Limited was a first class passenger train operated by the Illinois Central Railroad between Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. It operated from 1911 to 1971. Offering the best in American railway deluxe services. The Panama Limited took its name from the Panama Canal, then under construction and ... Read More »

Southern Pacific’s premier trains the Shasta Daylight, and the Cascade served the northwest from San Francisco to Portland and Seattle from the 1950s into the 1960s. They served dozens of California, Oregon and Washington cities. The Shasta was popular with tourists and the Cascade, a favorite with business people. THE ... Read More »

Southern Pacific’s longest-running named train, the Del Monte Limited operated a daily round-trip service between San Francisco, via San Jose, and Monterey.  Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, with its first-class observation parlor car, The Del Monte served San Francisco’s grandee families. There were generations of Crockers, Tevises, Morses, and regulars ... Read More »

Onboard such famous trains as the California Zephyr, Super Chief, Sunset Limited, Lark, 20th Century Limited, Pullman porters served millions of passengers from 1867 to 1968. They provided first-class train service in Pullman sleeping cars. The accommodations ranged from sections (upper and lower births), roomettes, bedrooms, compartments to drawing rooms. ... Read More »

Streamline Moderne flagship store located on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, was designed by Stiles O. Clements and completed in 1938-39. Coulter’s stood four floors high, with a rounded exterior of white concrete and horizontal bands of glass block rather than proper windows. A dramatic seventy-two-foot-high panel of glass ... Read More »

Premiering in 1954, the San Francisco Chief offered First Class Pullman Sleeping Car and Chair Car accommodations daily from San Francisco to Chicago until 1971 when Amtrak eliminated 100s of passenger trains. Competing with the City of San Francisco and the California Zephyr, the San Francisco Chief soon became very ... Read More »

When the Fox Theater was built in 1929, it seemed as if there weren’t enough adjectives to describe the movie theatre’s magnificence. The new video features its history and final days in 1963. The San Francisco Chronicle called the opening “a spectacle of such beauty and magnitude that it seemed ... Read More »

Eastern Steamship Lines operated coastwise overnight passenger services along the Long Island Sound between New York and Boston and to other Northeast Coast ports including Portland, Maine, along with services to Canada and cruises. In 1901, Charles Wyman Morse merged the Boston &. Bangor Steamship Company, the Portland Steam Packet ... Read More »

The Union fleet became synonymous with pioneers and loggers, and for 70 years, ships sporting the company’s black and red funnels plied the coast, servicing logging camps, canneries, mines, and coastal communities. ‘ The Union Steamship Company was the first line to use Vancouver as a homeport. The Klondike gold ... Read More »