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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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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OLD CITY LANDMARKS DISAPPEAR AT CORNER OF HIGUERA AND NIPOMO

Pioneer mayor and supervisor, P.F. Ready,

first developed this site along San Luis Obispo Creek.

October 30, 1969

Here is a glimpse of the neighborhood today thanks to Google Maps. Paste in this text string - 648 Higuera, San Luis Obispo, Ca - then click on street view.

They haven’t yet perfected the time travel version that shows what a street looked like 100 years ago but it will be cool when they do. I understand it will be ready about 2,108.

It would be freaky if they could put history into virtual reality glasses. You’d see people stumbeling into hovercraft lanes and running into newspaper racks. (Yea, the internet dies out sometime around 2088 after a shortage of Mentos and Diet Coke cause people to lose interest in YouTube.)

If you are still reading, here is what the article by staff writer Elliot Curry said:

Two of the oldest landmarks on Higuera Street have been slowly disappearing this fall as Dennis Ahearn clears away the old Brophy home and the neighboring two-story business building. Only a few gnarled trees now stand at 648 Higuera Street.

The two old buildings were each more than 90 years old. Together with the long-abandoned service station a the northeast corner of Higuera and Nipomo, they made up what was once the P.F. Ready property.

Phillip Ready was a young Irishman who came to San Luis Obispo in 1867 and by 1872 had established himself with a blacksmith shop on the corner where the old service station now stands.

Ready was elected to the City Council in 1880 and later became mayor of the city. In 1889 he was elected county supervisor, holding that position until 1892.

***

Mrs. Maydie Brophy, lived in one of the houses where she was born most of her life, she was 94 and in a convalescent home when the article was written. She would walk to the Mission where she was organist for many years and she retired as a bookkeeper at Rileys department store at the age of 87 after over 50 years working at the store.

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I worked at Cal Photo to help pay for my Cal Poly tuition in the early 1980’s.

Bill Hinote had bought the business from his father and for decades the two places to buy cameras in town were Jim’s Campus Camera and Cal Photo.

Bill loved to talk about flying his glider and could make anyone feel comfortable about opening their wallet to buy a camera.

They used to have a memorable radio ad that would talk about a featured product then a reverb-drenched voice would come on echoing Caaaaalllll Phoooootoooooooo.

Usually the customers were a lot of fun to talk to and it was a great place to learn about the latest gear. Some days you would get a question that left you scratching your head.

“Do batteries with flat bottoms have more power than ones with dimples?”

“Do you have cameras that take pictures at the speed of light?”

Then there was the guy that brought in the Nikonos camera in a coffee can of seawater. He had opened it, underwater, to change the film.
“I thought it was O.K. It’s an underwater camera, right?”
“It won’t rust as long as it is in seawater will it?”

During a big rain, water would pond on the roof of the building and come down the inside of the Morro Street wall. The unwanted water feature would result in a quick rearrangement of floor items and towels on the floor until the cloudburst passed.

No one mourned the building when the French family bought the property and knocked it over and later the Copeland family built the Downtown Centere.

Today the corner of Morro and Higuera is the location of the Apple store. I should ask them if they have cameras that take pictures at the speed of light.

Jim’s is still open down the street and the spirit of Cal Photo lives on when the photo-finishing manager, Peggy Mesler, opened the Photo Shop on Marsh Street.

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