Thomas Guides

[cahwyguy]

A question unrelated to my highway page updates or headlines.

I've realized I've got a bunch of Thomas Guides and equivalents (Renie, Gillespie): But they are all predominately Southern California: LA, Orange, Ventura, Riverside. When I went online to take a look for equivalent ones for the Northern California Bay Area, older ones seemed non-existent, and newer ones (1990s+) were rare.

So, here's the question: In Northern California, were Thomas Guides the same thing they were in Southern Calfornia? If not, what were the street level map guides that were used (because you know they had to exist)?

[Max Rockatansky]

I've seen a couple Thomas Maps for NorCal on David Rumsey (largely around the Fresno area).  In the case of the Fresno map it seemed to be out of date from the claimed year of 1938. 

[cahwyguy]

Amazon had a number of the Bay Area maps, but they were all in the 8.5x11 portrait book style, not the landscape style I saw in the So Cal counties. They were also expensive -- like hundreds of dollars. So I'm wondering if the SoCal style were as much of a thing in San Jose, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Alameda, San Francisco, etc.

[And if anyone sees one for cheap at a garage or yard sale in the "cheap" range, pick it up and we'll talk.]

Daniel

[rschen7754]

Around the Rand McNally buyout a lot of the Northern California guides got discontinued. I don't know how many people actually bought them though.

I cleaned up on several in a web sale around 2010 - and that's where I got ones for Bay Area Metro, Las Vegas, Sacramento/Solano Counties. They used to have ones for Kern, Kings/Tulare (and I think some of the other Central Valley counties), King/Pierce/Snohomish in WA, and I think some in Arizona/DC.

[Bickendan]

I'll have to inventory mine, but I should have them for every California area Thomas Brother covered, as well Portland and Metro Sound.

[DTComposer]

At least in my early driving days (late '80s) Thomas Guides were prominent, if not as ubiquitous as in SoCal. I had the Santa Clara/Alameda County combo, then the Golden Gate (Marin/San Francisco/San Mateo/Santa Clara), then the Bay Area metro version.

In my collection is Santa Clara County from 1956; I know there was a thread from a few years back that had a whole lot of Thomas Bros. scans.

If I remember correctly, I think Barclay was the next most prominent street-level atlas in the area?

[heynow415]

At least in my early driving days (late '80s) Thomas Guides were prominent, if not as ubiquitous as in SoCal. I had the Santa Clara/Alameda County combo, then the Golden Gate (Marin/San Francisco/San Mateo/Santa Clara), then the Bay Area metro version.

In my collection is Santa Clara County from 1956; I know there was a thread from a few years back that had a whole lot of Thomas Bros. scans.

If I remember correctly, I think Barclay was the next most prominent street-level atlas in the area?

Me too.  I still have the 1996 Bay Area version and a 2006 SF/Marin edition, the latter of which I still regularly use, especially since between the two counties, there really isn't any substantive change to the road network.  I regret not keeping some of the older ones.  The 1996 one is the first one I recall using the "standardized" numbered grid/page numbering that carried across an entire region; previous ones had numbers but the grid could have different sized boxes to represent a map page, some of which would be suffiixed, like "2A" and the grid/page numbering was particular to that specific map book.  Also seemed like that was most prevalent in areas where lots of sprawl occurred and the original map grid didn't have any detail for that area so they had to shoehorn it in.

[rschen7754]

At least in my early driving days (late '80s) Thomas Guides were prominent, if not as ubiquitous as in SoCal. I had the Santa Clara/Alameda County combo, then the Golden Gate (Marin/San Francisco/San Mateo/Santa Clara), then the Bay Area metro version.

In my collection is Santa Clara County from 1956; I know there was a thread from a few years back that had a whole lot of Thomas Bros. scans.

If I remember correctly, I think Barclay was the next most prominent street-level atlas in the area?

Me too.  I still have the 1996 Bay Area version and a 2006 SF/Marin edition, the latter of which I still regularly use, especially since between the two counties, there really isn't any substantive change to the road network.  I regret not keeping some of the older ones.  The 1996 one is the first one I recall using the "standardized" numbered grid/page numbering that carried across an entire region; previous ones had numbers but the grid could have different sized boxes to represent a map page, some of which would be suffiixed, like "2A" and the grid/page numbering was particular to that specific map book.  Also seemed like that was most prevalent in areas where lots of sprawl occurred and the original map grid didn't have any detail for that area so they had to shoehorn it in.

I've found some old ones in used bookstores for pretty cheap (I found some at The Iliad Bookshop in LA). That is, back when it was safe to go to stores.

[Northcoast707]

Dear California Highway Guy:  Yes, the Thomas Bros. street atlases and street guides for Northern California were comparable to those issued for the urban areas of Southern California.  I have two - a San Francisco street atlas and a Sonoma County street atlas that are both copyrighted 1953, and these were the pilot issues for these respective areas, although I also have a prototype issue for the San Francisco street atlas dated 1952 - it has a grayish-green cover with a photo of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on the front replete with ads on the map pages.  The cover is cardboard bound with staples instead of the usual "faux leatherette" covers of the spiral ring bound issues.  Hope this helps.

[KEK Inc.]

I had a few Thomas Guides growing up.  I grew up in San Jose, and I had a 1998 Santa Clara one.  It was a book in landscape form.

I also had a California state Thomas Guide and Pacific NW Thomas Guide from 2001 I believe?  It was in portrait mode.

[Ted$8roadFan]

I have a Thomas Guide for the Seattle area from 1995.

[pderocco]

I have a bunch of 1990s Thomas Guides from SoCal, Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle, but I think they're all in storage somewhere. I vaguely recall that in the RMcN era, there was also a Boston area book. I even have one ugly Los Angeles book from before they improved their cartography, where roads and rivers were both drawn in black, as I recall.

I kept these (along with lots of gas station road maps) because I thought they might be useful in figuring out what roads were built when, but since Google Earth imagery in US generally goes back to 1994, I haven't missed them. I have fond memories of using them, but I haven't felt the urge to excavate them from my storage unit. And I certainly wouldn't abandon computer maps on a touch screen for anything in the world.

[Northcoast707]

Dear Cahwyguy:  Thomas Bros. didn't start issuing road and street atlases (the spiral ring bound ones) of Northern California until late 1952, beginning with the one for Santa Clara County ("1952-53 edition"); all the other counties ringing the immediate San Francisco Bay starting in 1953.  There were some pocket sized street atlases of the Bay Area that predated these, called "street guides," and I have seen one for Alameda County dated 1945, and for San Francisco, the earliest I've seen has been dated 1949.   Hope this helps!