suzanne: we are headed today in downtown visalia. shopping malls were starting to spring up and people were moving outside of the town center. visalia made a very conscious effort to make sure that their downtown stayed very vital. so merchants on the downtown area in main street, you will tend to see locally-owned shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues. we have the fox theater. fox theater is one of the anchors of our downtown, an icon for downtown. we have the united states post office, which is an art deco building built in the wp a -- -- wpa era. we have a sapling from a grove of trees. this is a federal building. a federal employee, the superintendent would spend his winters down here working out of an office in the basement. and we had a bit of a roll in getting sequoia designated -- a bit of a role in getting sequoia designated as a national park. a local newspaper man started the movement to protect the trees from logging. this building that is catty corner to us to the left, the second floor was always a hotel on the gr

we are headed today in downtown visalia. starting tols were spring up

wrote this book, "a walk around visalia," and it is about 10 different walks we can take around visalia. downtown is especially a feeling because it is full of independent restaurants and stores, all doing a good business. it has grown up in the last 30 years or so to the this. we've fixed up the fox theater and have shows they are -- shows there all the time. are standing in front of the office, founded in 1851, and visalia was founded in 1852. it had a paper before it was actually a city. is interesting, because there were several papers at that time, and as the lead up to the civil war progressed, one paper took the side of the south, and another paper took the side of the north. the conflict was severe enough that the state of california, which was a union state, sent visaliaown here to fort , and they actually enforced the laws in on ways. at one time, in the 1860's, the southern sympathizing paper put out an editorial that was very much against lincoln. the union soldiers stationed here came into town and for the presses out and threw them on the streets. that paper is up and running again

visalia, california. to learn more about our cities on her current tour, visit c-span.org/citiestour. we look back at the history of we are headed today initially in our downtown, and people were moving outside of the town you will tend to see locally owned shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues. to our left we have the fox theater.

we are headed today in downtown visalia. starting tols were spring up and people were moving outside of the town center. visalia made a very conscious effort to make sure that their downtown stayed very vital. so merchants on the downtown area in main street, you will tend to see locally-owned shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues. we have the fox theater. fox theater is one of the , an iconf our downtown for downtown. states postunited office, which is an art deco building built in the wp a -- pa -- wpaete -- dubya era. a grovea sapling from of trees. .his is a federal building a federal employee, the superintendent would spend his winters down here working out of an office in the basement. roll inad a bit of a getting sequoia designated -- a in getting sequoia designated as a national park. a local newspaper man started the movement to protect the trees from logging. this building that is catty , ther to us to the left second floor was always a hotel on the ground floor was always retail. i mentioned a little bit abo

visalia made a conscious effort to make sure their downtown relevant.rant and you will tend to see locally owned shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. to our left here, we have the fox theatre. the fox theatre is one of the anchors of our downtown, an icon for downtown. to our left here is the united states post office which is a -- an art decko building built in the w.p.a. area in our decko style. quoia.e a se since this is a federal building, the federal employee, the superintendent of kings canyon would spend his winters working ott of the basement. visalia has a strong union with the national park service. had a bit of a role getting sequoia national park and designate and to protect these trees from logging. i wanted to mens the palace hotel. this is the building that is caddie corner to us over here. the second floor of that was always a hotel and the ground floor was always retail. i mentioned a little bit of visalia's historic connection to the national park. -- 15 the mountain meater matter party had a dinner. the second floor has not been touched in 80 years. you get the v

visalia, california. to learn more about our cities on her current tour, visit c-span.org/citiestour. we look back at the history of we are headed today initially in our downtown area. and we hadrowing shopping malls, started to spring up, and people were moving outside of the town you will tend to see locally owned shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues. to our left we have the fox theater. the fox theater is one of our anchors of our downtown. it is an icon for downtown. office,eft is the post which is an arctic -- art deco building in the art deco style. to our left is a sequoia tree that came here as a three-year-old sapling from the grand grove of trees up and kings canyon, national park. their offices down in the basement of the post office and since it is a federal building, the federal employees, the superintendent of kings canyon would spend his winters down here working out of an office in the basement. visalia has a strong connection with sequoia national park and the national parks service. role in getting sequoia designated as a national park in the first place. a local newspaper man started a campaign to get the park designated and to prote