Catalog Archive
Auction 178, Lot 195

"Bird’s-Eye View of Wichita Falls Irrigation Project Chamber of Commerce Wichita Falls Texas [in] Little Farms - The Charles Weeks Magazine"

Subject: Wichita Falls, Texas & Los Angeles, California

Period: 1925 (dated)

Publication:

Color: Printed Color

Size:
32.6 x 9.1 inches
82.8 x 23.1 cm
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This lovely bird's-eye view of the Wichita Falls region was issued in the June 1929 edition of Charles Weeks' Intensive Little Farms. Drawn by J.P. Hathaway, it graphically depicts the recently created Lake Kemp, Wichita Falls, and the Red River in the background. This area was the planned new home of Charles Weeks' "Chain Farms," one of several locations that Weeks targeted for a new form of agricultural development. His poultry farm design consisted of small one-acre plots using cages, a revolutionary idea at the time when most chickens were raised free-range. In addition to Wichita Falls, Weeks was busy promoting another community in the Los Angeles region, and the issue includes a printed letter from Weeks offering land for sale in the San Fernando Valley, which he writes “is destined to be the BETTER HALF of Los Angeles…” Quarto, 20 pages, pictorial wrappers.

Weeks first project was a Utopian community outside of San Francisco (Runnymede) based on his “Practical Idealism” approach promoting agricultural efficiency as the means to family independence and happiness. While innovative for the time, Weeks’ projects eventually fell victim to the Depression, and he retired to Florida. No copies of the view are located in OCLC or elsewhere. The magazine itself appears to be a rare survivor with only one institution (Wisconsin Historical Society) showing a holding of unspecified issues.

References:

Condition: A

The contents are clean, bright, and near fine. The view is loose from the magazine, and the wrappers have light wear with a few minor edge chips.

Estimate: $180 - $220

Sold for: $90

Closed on 6/10/2020

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