The City of San Rafael has some great ariel images. I last saw them 10 years ago and they were on huge pieces of paper hanging in (I think) the planning department office. There was a fee if a person wanted copies of them. There should be overhead views dating back to at least the 50s somewhere.

I have some more from the late 1940s and will do some more scanning soon...promise! There are ones of Sun Valley (see that thread in the future) and a bunch of White's Hill.