A few years ago, Jason Kottke posted that Life Magazine up till 1972 is all online. It allows you to search for words in the magazine and find the story from the December 19, 1949 issue mentioning the building of the $25,000 Roanoke Star. You can also browse by year.
It’s fun to search for places you know, so here’s an image from La Jolla — a woman with state-of-the-art, now vintage surfboards from January 1, 1951:
