1964

The fender bender is the reason the photo was made but what makes it interesting to day is how the background has changed.
Judging from the location of the Fremont, Cerro San Luis and old courthouse buildings this is the corner of Higuera and Santa Rosa Streets. This block has changed with the addition of the county government center and courthouse addition as well as a bank. Much of the upper downtown in the mid 20th century was based on the car economy. Car dealerships, radiator shops and gas stations made up a high percentage of the businesses here. Sandy Leguina & Sons had the Armstrong tire dealership and tune up shop; Chevron was just up Santa Rosa. The VW bug to the left is a classic with the small rear window and it looks like another old classic is parked under the trim shop sign.
Start the New Year off right and drive safe.

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May 6, 1894
There is nothing like the Sunday morning paper, fresh coffee, breakfast and a few quiet minutes to read without having to rush to work. (Condolences to those of you who work weekends, I work my share of them.)
The editor and proprietor Benjamin Brooks knew the value of a Sunday paper in 1894. You could get home delivery for fifteen cents a week or pick it up at the office on Chorro Street (between Higuera and Marsh) over the Chicago Brewery.
If you were offended by the brewery ad, with natural ice, you could take comfort in the Church Notices, which included listings for at least three in the same locations today. The Mission, St. Stephens and Presbyterian Church.
Somewhere along the way the Tribune stopped publishing on Sundays, perhaps about the time they combined with the Telegram. There was no Sunday paper in San Luis Obispo County for decades until Knight-Ridder bought the paper from Scripps. August 1999 marked the rebirth of the Sunday paper and the first 7-day-a-week publication in over 100 years.
Even in 1894 fashion news was hot and New York was the source. Included with a drawing of a woman wearing what must be a painfully tight corset was an article with the urgent headline:

NEW YORK FASHIONS
The Correct Thing to Wear and How to Wear It.
BEWARE OF SHAMS
Good times are coming, but after all that only means for a good many of us that we shall be able to pay up debts and “get square” and, pray, where comes in the summer wardrobe meantime, to say nothing of the gowns we used right off this minute! It means more planning, more work and more cheeriness but it all can be done. Remember, nothing will keep up father’s courage, or big John’s, as will seeing you look pretty and fresh for the new season. Besides that, it is good for his credit. As long as a man’s wife keeps tidy and dressy it gives an air of prosperity to his affairs.

The fashion was hot, as in unbearable and this was billed as summer wear.

In other news there were advertisements for several hotels, terms ranged from $1 to $2.50 a day. If you are in the market, the Barney Cole ranch is for sale, over 1,600 acres between Port Harford and the town of Morro. “It is fenced all around, except for the ocean frontage.”

The superintendent of the narrow gauge Pacific Coast Railway  was whining that the Southern Pacific would not change their timetable to suit his. Want to guess who won that battle?

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ALL WRAPPED UP… John Somogyi gift wrapped himself for San Luis Obispo Christmas parade.

December 14, 1964

Photographers go to a lot of parades. I mean we photograph a LOT of parades.
The late-lamented Mardi Gras, a great parade.
Epic.
It had creativity, color, energy and the understanding that if you have a parade at night, street lamps are not enough, put up some lights, a lot of lights.
The San Luis Obispo Christmas parade?
Yawn.
I’m sorry if this makes you mad, but someone has to speak up. San Luis Obispo, I am worried about you, I only bring this up because I care. Look, the other parades have been talking and you need to know. It is time for an intervention.
A chain of fuming diesel trucks dragging flatbed trailers, a few hay bales and an distorted boom box churning out the same three Christmas tunes at ear bleeding volume is not a parade.
I’m not against vehicles in parades. The Shriners are great at Pinedorado; the antique farm equipment is my favorite part of Pioneer Day. It doesn’t have to be the Rose Float but put a little thought into the lighting.
We know this town has a deeper wellspring of creativity, we’ve seen it, why it only flows before Lent and not Christmas is a mystery.
Now let’s turn the clock back.
No wonder we have an obesity problem today, back in the 1960’s kids used their legs and walked in the parade, and it was in the daylight. It looks like the same route down Monterey Street. This is when the city was the hot shopping center for the county. Montgomery Wards and J.C. Penny’s were there to supply shoppers, as well as Sears, Woolworth’s and Riley’s all within a few blocks.
Which reminds me, I’ve gotta finish my Christmas shopping, happy holidays to everyone.

Photos by Jim Vestal

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January 28, 1913

Photography was still enough of a novelty that everyone would stop what they were doing for a photograph. Another reason to stand still was technical. The exposure was a combination of flash (probably powder) and a long time exposure to gather light from the fixtures. Movement during the exposure would blur the photo.

Pacific Coast Amusement Co. looks like the original sports bar and pool hall. Pennants from various universities hang from the walls. Cal Poly was 10 years old but sadly has no banner in this picture; the Foundation must not have been selling them at the time. It must be a tournament or some other special occasion, perhaps Super bowl iixl.

Neckties, hats and suits, these guys weren’t stumblebums and the room was packed hence the dry wit in the caption “A DULL DAY”.

Once again like the bar photo from the same era the only women in the photo are in the framed photos on the walls. There are several smokers and the glimmer of a spittoon but no bottles or glasses except for the decorative bottle shapes along the wall. Perhaps alcohol was too controversial to photograph. There is not even a soda bottle to be found.

Fair warning to all you Anti-Saloon League members, the Tribune was printed over a bar for many years after it was founded in 1869. San Luis Obispo in the early 1900’s had 20-40 bars but fewer newspapers. The Telegram was founded in 1905 and had a prohibitionist philosophy. The battle between the papers would end in 1939 when they merged though they had been under the same ownership since 1925.

Anyone recognize this pool hall location?

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One of the places I would turn back time to see would be the Ramona Hotel.
Four stories tall, the building covered the block between Higuera and Marsh Streets and fronted Essex St. (Now Johnson Ave.) The Hotel had its own railroad spur, a saloon, ballroom and several drawing rooms.
The Hotel opened October 3, 1888 with a grand ball, men wearing swallow tail coats and diamond studs, women in silk and lace. The party wouldn’t last, just over 17 years later the hotel would lie in ashes around a lone chimney.
The Ramona rose in the aftermath of an 1886 fire that devastated downtown. Destroyed were the Andrews Hotel, Bank of San Luis Obispo, the main livery stable and a number of smaller shops. The opening was reported, amid a sea of ads for other hotels, on the lead spot for local news at the time, page 3 of The Tribune. A sign of the importance of the event was the engraving that ran with the article. In this era images with news stories were rare.
Investors included the Southern Pacific Railroad who had high hopes of attracting customers to the sparsely populated west coast. Ironically when the railroad conquered Cuesta Grade in 1894 there was less reason for people to stay here on their travels. Combined with a financial panic and depression the hotel closed the day after Christmas 1894 and did not reopen for 6 months.

Quoting a story by Maggy Stephenson in the Telegram-Tribune May 10, 1947 ,

The Ramona reflected both the architectural indecision of the time, and the veranda-society of pioneer California tourists.
Basically a huge but rather unpretentious clapboard building, eclectic touches were spread on its surface like meringue on a pie.
The steep roof of the Swiss chalet; stringcourses from Italy’s renaissance; half-timber from medieval Nurnberg; chimneys from Tudor England; and little turrets, French or faintly onion-shaped from the Czar’s Russia.

A room cost $2.50 a day and up and included meals. My favorite part, Stephensen said a photograph of the common rooms show entertainment was provided via pianos, banjos, mandolins and guitars.

The dining room was 60 by 80 feet with a 24-foot ceiling and a stuffed mountain lion guarded the lobby. Long before the Madonna Inn, cupids adorned the walls of the Ramona. President William McKinley spoke from the balcony during a whistle stop tour of the west coast.

The era ended November 10, 1905 when an 2 a.m. kitchen fire spread. The night clerk ran from room to room rousing the 250 guests. The building was so far from town that no others were destroyed though several were threatened. By this time custom was to report the big news of the day on the front page. Remarkably the morning paper had a brief the morning of the fire on the front with more details to follow the next day. The Morning Tribune concluded with two boosterish sentences.

There is a golden opportunity for some person, or persons to build at once a big hotel in the business section of the city. San Luis Obispo is growing rapidly and such a hotel would pay well.

Taken on the steps of the Ramona Hotel, Nov. 24, 1896. Swiss envoy minister J. B. Pioda visits San Luis Obispo. Front row from left, starting from the young man in gray suit holding hat, Arthur Baur, A. Tognazzini (standing on second step), J. B. Pioda, A Borel (light trousers), G. A. Berton and Henry Brunner. Second row, starting with the two small boys at left, Louis and Arnold Donati, Pio Taminelli (next to boy in dark suit:, Mr. Antognini, publisher of Swiss newspaper, “El-vezia,” and standing with arms akimbo, Sam Donati (light suit); three unidentified men, one of which has light gray suit and white beard; A. Vignier (bearded with sideburns), A. Monotti and George Cavalli. Third row, starting with man with flag, M. Righetti, Mrs. B. Pezzoni, two unidentified men, one slightly behind the other, B. G. Tognazzini, undentified man standing slightly back and looking of to his left, Peter Tognazzini, G. Fanciola, Dante Muscio, J. B. Bonetti, standing with thumb tucked in pants pocket and loking off to his right, Peter Zanoli, Robert Righetti and a Mr. Palmer. The picture was printed in the Centurama edition of the Telegram-Tribune in 1956. The picture was loaned to the paper by Sam Borradori, who also made the identifications after considerable research.

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November 1959
Though the writing on the print says 1949, this view of Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo is likely 10 years later. Both the Battle of Midway starring Cliff Robertson and the Crimson Kimono shared the bill on the Obispo Theater. They were released in 1959. The cars look like 1950’s era cars.
The Christmas decorations are up and every parking space is filled, parking meters are not visible in this image.
On the other side of the street the same J.P. Andrews building pictured in the Guy Crabb post stands at the corner of Osos and Monterey Streets. The block had filled in during the half-century.
State Farm Insurance and Blake Printery are about where Boo Boos Records are today and the Moose Lodge is just down the street.

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Vivian Krug with the South County Historical Society sent this information. If you like old local photos this looks like a great exhibit.

Carpenter on tower in Oceano.

Photos by Virgil Hodges, Courtesy of the Bennett-Loomis Archives

You may never have heard about Virgil Hodges, but you’ve probably seen his photographs. You may have old postcards with his photos of women wearing bathing suits in 1905 Oceano Beach. His images are in history books, seven warships running aground at Point Honda in 1923, the Santa Rosa breaking apart near the Point Arguello lighthouse in 1911, or Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet visiting Avila in 1908. Magazines and newspapers featured many of his photographs throughout the years – images of people, of floods and fires, and of everyday life on the Central Coast.

Photo archivist Gordon Bennett will present a talk on Hodges at the South County Historical Society IOOF’s Hall in Arroyo Grande Saturday Nov. 22, 2008 at 2 PM. Bennett remembers the stories behind the photographs from his close friendship with the photographer which lasted until Hodge’s death in the early 1990s.

Born near on a farm near Arroyo Grande in 1879, Virgil Ulysses Hodges was the son of a Union Civil War veteran who named his son after Ulysses S. Grant. His sister Rose provided the necessary spark for Virgil’s life-long interest in photography. Rose had large box camera that she passed on to Virgil when she married. Virgil developed his skills quickly not only in taking pictures but in also developing and printing photographs.

Virgil Hodges moved to Lompoc after graduating from Arroyo Grande High School. He married Fae Elnora Winn and worked for the Lompoc Streets Department for thirty years, retiring in 1944. After his wife’s death in 1958, he moved to a cottage on Whiteley Street in Arroyo Grande.

“Get a good camera, learn how to use it and be there when things happen,” Hodges said. He followed that rule and visitors can see more than twenty of his enlarged photographs at the IOOF Hall, 128 Bridge Street in Arroyo Grande through December 14, 2008.
Other photographs on display include two Oceano Dunes Photo exhibits, one by Santa Barbara Photographer Robert Werling and the other by Pismo physician Billy Mounts. Museum hours are Fridays and Saturdays 1 – 5 PM, or by appointment in groups of four or more. For more information, please call 489-8282.

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August 10, 1968

Nights are getting longer, daylight saving time is ending and lights are taking effect.
The 1960’s were the golden age for neon signs. The view of Monterey Street shows signs in front of the Fremont and Obispo theaters and the Anderson Hotel. The light pollution spraying into the sky makes it hard for astronomers but for a business trying to impress customers on the old highway a big sign was the first place to spend money.
Ed’s Hamburger was at the corner of California and Monterey Streets, now the location for Splash Café.
Taco Bell used to have a gas fired flame pit in front to draw in customers. It didn’t cook anything, all it heated was the pumice rocks and the customers waiting in line or eating on the outdoor patio. Yeah, the first oil shocks were still over the horizon. Lest a utilitarian trashcan mar your trash disposal experience, they were shaped like cactus.

Before Farmer’s Market took over the streets, Thursday was the night to cruise Monterey and Higuera Streets.

Photos by David Ranns

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July 22, 1983

A new era of shopping came to San Luis Obispo when Mervyn’s opened over 25 years ago. The city had resisted the ample parking/big box/shopping mall trend that had evolved over the late 1960’s and 1970’s. The beginning of the change came when Sears moved out of downtown to what was then called the Madonna Road Plaza.

Mervyn’s replaced Beano’s and drew a big crowd.

Brenda Leyva came with her three-year-old son Nick to check out the gala opening sales.

Quoting the opening day story:

From the size of the crowd at Madonna Road Plaza in San Luis Obispo Friday, kit could have been a visiting President Ronald Reagan or a rock star.
…
“It was unbelievable,” said store clerk Dorothy King. “There were people lined up four abreast at the cash registers.”
…
Today a dixieland band is scheduled to play and a troupe of clowns, starring “Mynerva Mervyn” will be ready with a stock of balloons for the kids.
Store director Mike Murray’s reaction to the mob: “We got the feeling they’ve been waiting some time for us.”

If I recall correctly back then your major shopping choices were Penny’s (in the current Ross location), Sears and Riley’s.

Now with the impending closure of Mervyn’s the only one of that group left standing in town is Sears.

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Pismo Beach hosts the Clam Festival is this weekend, and Atascadero has Colony Days.

Clamming used to be a major event over 40 years ago, but at some point the clammers and resurgent otters began to outnumber the clams. The Chumash and the dunites could live off the clams on the beach but that era was coming to a close.

Extra low tides in January and June brought out clam hunters out in droves. This is from a front-page story from June 11, 1964:

OCEANO – C’mon in! The water’s cold and the clamming is great!
That seems to be the word today along the South County coast where more than 10,000 men, women and children braved the water along the 10 miles from Pismo Pier to the Oso Flaco area below Oceano.
Raymond W. Westberg, Pismo Beach State Park superintendent, said that a car count of persons was made at the three entrances to the beach at Pismo Beach, Grand Avenue and the Oceano ramp.
Bill Lovern, bait shop operator at the Oceano ramp, said there were 2,000 to 2,5000 clammers in his area at sun-up.
“They really slaughtered the clams,” he said.

A year-and-a-half later the Focus section ran a story under the headline “How long can clam population last?” on January 8, 1966.

Extra state fish and game wardens were brought in from other parts of the state to handle the huge crowds combing the area’s beaches for clams. Last January, when more than 150,000 persons swarmed to the county’s beaches, only five wardens were available for duty.

So many clammers invaded county beaches last January that the area supply of fishing licenses was depleted and wardens were unable to enforce licensing laws.
But this isn’t the case this week, and the public is reminded that all licenses expired last week.
Pacific Telephone Co. has added extra operators to handle the many calls from this county. Last year the local office was swamped with calls and had difficulty handling them all. Extra pay telephones have been set up near the beaches to ease some of the load.
The effect on the clam population itself is devastating. Fish and Game officials last year said that more than a million clams were taken from the county’s beaches and that clamming would “probably never fully recover” from the onslaught.

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