San Luis Obispo, Hearst Castle and Vicinity

Macrine and I had been to the Hearst Castle in San Simeon twice in the late 1970's. There are five tours one can take, but if it is your first time, Tour #1 is highly recommended by the National State Park officials. It is about 41 miles from San Luis Obispo, where most tourist stay overnight to return the next day for another tour.
The Garden
Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to the state of California. Since that time it has been maintained as a state historic park where the estate, and its considerable collection of art and antiques, is open for public tours. Despite its location far from any urban center, the site attracts roughly one million visitors per year.

Hearst formally named the estate "La Cuesta Encantada" ("The Enchanted Hill"), but usually called it "the ranch". The castle and grounds are also sometimes referred to as "San Simeon" without distinguishing between the Hearst property and the adjacent unincorporated area of the same name. The history of this castle is fascinating and interesting. For details read the Wikipedia.
The Pool-edged with Gold

Now for information about San Luis Opispo, just recently listed as one of the top ten and best cities to live in the United States.

San Luis Obispo (pronounced /sæn ˈluːɪs ɵˈbɪspoʊ/; Spanish for St. Louis, the Bishop) is a city in California, located midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities. The city, referred to locally as "SLO", "SLOtown", "S.L.O" and "San Luis", is the county seat of San Luis Obispo County and is adjacent to California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). As of the 2006 Census Bureau estimate, the city population was 42,963 (down 2.8% from 2000). One of Macrine's nephew graduated from Cal Poly in the late 1980's.

The City in 1876

Earliest human inhabitants of the local area were the Chumash peoples, who settled in the vicinity circa 5,000 to 10,000 years BC. One of the earliest villages lies south of San Luis Obispo, and reflects the landscape of the early Holocene when estuaries came farther inland and sea levels were higher. These Chumash people exploited marine resources of the inlets and bays along the Central Coast and inhabited a network of villages including sites at Los Osos and Morro Creek.

San Luis Obispo once had a burgeoning Chinatown in the vicinity of Palm St. and Chorro St. Laborers were brought from China by Ah Louis in order to construct the Pacific Coast Railway, roads connecting San Luis Obispo to Paso Robles and Paso Robles to Cambria, and also the 1884 to 1894 tunneling through Cuesta Ridge for the Southern Pacific Railroad. SLO's Chinatown revolved around Ah Louis Store and other Palm Street businesses owned and run by Chinese business people. Today, Mee Heng Low chop suey shop is all that remains of the culture, although a revitalized Chinatown development is being planned. A display of some of the unearthed relics from this period can be seen on the first floor of the Palm Street parking garage, which was built over the location where Chinatown once stood. The San Luis Obispo Historical Society (adjacent to the Mission) also contains rotating historical exhibits.

San Luis Obispo was also a popular stop on both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 with the rise of car culture. Due to its popularity as a stop, it was the location of the first motel, the Milestone Mo-Tel.

Among San Luis Obispo's historical buildings is the former San Luis Obispo Carnegie Library, located at 696 Monterey Street. The San Luis Obispo Carnegie Library was built in 1905 with a grant of $10,000 from Andrew Carnegie, who funded the establishment of 142 California libraries in the early 1900s. The Romanesque style building was designed by architect W.H.Weeks of Watsonville, California and was built by contractor Joseph Maino of San Luis Obispo. As one of numerous California public buildings designed by W. H. Weeks, it shares features with Carnegie libraries in nearby Lompoc and Paso Robles. The San Luis Obispo Carnegie building served as the city library until 1955, when a new public library was built at the corner of Palm and Morro Streets. It has been home to the San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum since 1956. The Carnegie Library building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


Note: This is no. 11 ( Part 1) of a series of articles on places that the Katague family had visited or resided in the US since 1960.