Historical photographs at San Ysidro Library.

Those interested in the history of San Diego should visit the San Ysidro Library. Inside the library’s community room, fascinating historical photographs of San Ysidro (one of San Diego’s southernmost districts) can be viewed.

I visited the library yesterday. I wanted to check out the old photos and visualize how San Ysidro appeared long ago.

I learned how this border community began as the Little Landers colony, a family farming cooperative created by agricultural reformer, journalist and writer William E. Smythe in 1908. The motto of Little Landers was “A little land and a living surely is better than desperate struggle and wealth possibly.” It was one of the nation’s first communes. The colony was named San Ysidro, probably after the patron saint of farmers, Isidore the Laborer, and was formally inaugurated on January 11, 1909.

I was also surprised to learn San Ysidro had a Pony Express station!

Here are just a few of the photographs you will see should you visit the library…

I took outside photos of the old 1924 library several years ago. See them here!

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!