HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 2 - HIST-0144-2020 (1789 Santa Barbara)Meeting Date: May 18, 2020
Item Number: 2
CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMITTEE AGENDA REPORT
SUBJECT: A request to designate property as a Master List Historic Resource
ADDRESS: 1789 Santa Barbara Ave BY: Walter Oetzell, Assistant Planner
Phone: 781-7593
FILE #: HIST-0144-2019 E-mail: woetzell@slocity.org
FROM: Brian Leveille, Senior Planner
1.0 BACKGROUND
Michael and Paden Hughes, represented by James
Papp of Historicities, LLC, have requested that
the property at 1798 Santa Barbara Avenue be
designated as a Master List Resource in the City’s
Inventory of Historic Resources, as The Lozelle
and Katie Flickinger Graham House, and have
provided an evaluation of the property and its
eligibility for historic listing (Attachment 1). As
provided in § 14.01.060 of the City’s Historic
Preservation Ordinance, the Committee will
determine if property meets eligibility criteria for
listing and forward a recommendation to City
Council, for final action on the application.
2.0 DISCUSSION
2.1 Site and Setting
The property is at the northwest corner of Church
Street and Santa Barbara Avenue, in the Medium-High Density Residential and Historical
Preservation Overlay (R-3-H) Zones, and in the Railroad Historic District. Development in the
District corresponded to the development of the Southern Pacific Railroad yard, accommodating
railway workers, freight and passengers, and employees of Southern Pacific and related businesses.
Surviving historic structures date from 1894 to 1945, corresponding with the peak activity of the
rail yard and the district’s period of significance, with most constructed before 1920 (see
Attachment 2). The property is developed with a single-family dwelling (see Figure 2), built in the
late 19th Century. In 1988 the property was designated as a Contributing Resource in the City’s
Historic Resources Survey (Resolution No. 6424).
2.2 Building Architecture
As described in the Papp evaluation, the dwelling is of an Italianate style, and, built in 1884, among
the Railroad District’s oldest surviving buildings (Papp pg. 1). The City’s Historic Context
Statement describes the style as one that began in England as part of the Picturesque Movement,
and in the United States followed the informal model of the simple Italian farmhouse, adapted into
an indigenous style (see Attachment 3). The house’s design is not attributed to a known architect
Figure 1: 1789 Santa Barbara Ave
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and was likely built by Lozelle Graham and his father, Dr. William Graham (Papp, pg. 8). The
architectural characteristics of the building are more fully discussed in the Papp evaluation
submitted with this application, and summarized in the Evaluation section of this report, below.
2.3 Lozelle Graham and Katie
Flickinger1
The Papp report outlines the history of the
Graham and Flickinger Families.
William B. Graham was a physician who,
in 1884, arrived in San Luis Obispo from
Napa County, having originated from
Indiana. His son Lozelle F. “Charlie”
Graham operated a “dry and fancy goods”
business in the City.
Joseph Henry Flickinger arrived in
California in 1849, operating a meat
market in San Jose, among other
endeavors around that time, and married Mary Smith (of New York), with twins Katie and Charles
born in California in 1857. In 1885 Katie Flickinger married L. F. Graham in San Jose, and the
two occupied the house until they relocated back to San Jose, to work for the Pacific Orchard and
Cannery, of which he became president. The dwelling is associated with the City’s pre-railroad
Late 19th Century Residential Development (Attachment 3) and extends through the Early 20th
Century period, through its continued use as a rental for occupants associated with the Southern
Pacific Railroad operations (Papp pg. 5).
3.0 EVALUATION
To be eligible for listing as an historic or cultural resource, the resource must exhibit a high level
of historic integrity, be at least 50 years old, and meet one or more of the eligibility criteria
described in § 14.01.070 of the Historic Preservation Ordinance (see Attachment 4). As provided
in § 14.01.050 of the Ordinance, the most unique and important resources and properties in terms
of age, architectural or historical significance, rarity, or association with important persons or
events in the City’s past may be designated as “Master List Resources.” In support of this
application, an evaluation of the architectural and historical characteristics of the property and the
dwelling has been prepared by James Papp, PhD, of Historicities LLC, a Historian and
Architectural Historian (hereinafter referred to as the “Papp Evaluation”).
3.1 Architectural Criteria
Character-defining features of the Italianate Style are described in the City’s Historic Context
Statement (Attachment 5) to include:
▪ Symmetrical façade
▪ Low pitched hipped or flat roof
1 Summarized from Papp, pp. 8-10
Figure 2: 1789 Santa Barbara Avenue
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▪ Widely overhanging eaves with large decorative brackets
▪ Tall narrow windows, commonly arched or curved above
▪ Elaborated window crowns
▪ One-story entry porch, often supported by square posts with beveled corners
▪ Centrally-placed square tower or cupola
As described and depicted in pages 12-19 of the Papp Evaluation, the Latimer House exhibits
many of these characteristic features:
Character-defining features include modest size and asymmetric footprint of the
mid nineteenth-century irregular cottage, promoted in the Gardenesque aesthetic
by architect–landscape architects John Claudius Loudon and Andrew Jackson
Downing; obtuse gable angle; deep eaves; twinned windows; window and door
crowns; shiplap siding; corner boards; entrance porch with square columns and
pilasters, arches, and classically referenced fretwork of the American Italianate
style in wood. (Papp pg. 12)
3.2 Historic Criteria
The property is, during its period of significance, most closely associated with the Graham family
(Lozelle Graham and Katie Flickinger) and with subsequent occupants associated with Southern
Pacific Railroad operations (Papp pg. 5). Though the background of the family and subsequent
occupants provide an interesting and informative glimpse into early California and local history
and local history related to railroad operations, the evaluation provided does not indicate a relevant
association with singular and important historical events and patterns or significance to the
community rising to a level that qualifies the property as a “Master List Resource” under Historic
Criteria in § 14.01.070 (B) of the Historic Preservation Ordinance.
3.2 Integrity
Apart from “few changes in utilitarian features,” the author of the Papp Evaluation notes that the
house has “a remarkable integrity of design:”
There have been none of the room additions common to and even anticipated in
irregular Italianate houses. There have been few changes in utilitarian features:
the addition of railing to the entrance porch and staircase, a small back window to
the south facade of the house, and an attic vent to the front gable; the replacement
of the front door, entrance transom glass, and window sashes and panes (in a way
sensitive to their proportions); and the removal of structural elements from the rear
porch. Roof cresting was added sometime after 1892 and removed sometime after
1907. (Papp, pg. 21).
The building occupies its original site, in the same location on the property, and has changed very
little from its original appearance, and thus to a large degree was found to satisfy the criteria for
Integrity set out in § 14.01.070 (C) of the Historic Preservation Ordinance.
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3.3 Conclusion
The information in the Papp Evaluation prepared for this application, documenting the
architectural character and integrity of the house, provides a basis for the Committee to find that
the dwelling satisfies Evaluation Criteria for Architectural Style and Design and for Integrity
described in §§ 14.01.070 (A) & (C) of the City’s Historic Preservation Ordinance (SLOMC
Ch. 14.01), to a degree that qualifies it for designation of the property as a Master List Historic
Resource.
4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This project is categorically exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality
Act (CEQA). Inclusion of the subject properties on the City’s Inventory of Historic Resources
does not have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment, and so is covered
by the general rule described in § 15061 (b) (3) of the CEQA Guidelines.
5.0 ALTERNATIVES
1. Continue consideration of the request with direction to the applicant and staff on pertinent
issues.
2. Recommend to the City Council that the property should not be designated as a Master List
Resource, based on finding that the property is not considered to be sufficiently unique or
important, or found to satisfy Evaluation Criteria for historic listing to a degree warranting
such designation.
6.0 ATTACHMENTS
1. Master List Application (Historical Evaluation, James Papp)
2. Railroad Historic District (Historic Preservation Program Guidelines)
3. Late 19th Century Residential Development (Context Statement)
4. Evaluation Criteria (Historic Preservation Ordinance)
5. Italianate Style (excerpt from Historic Context Statement)
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1
Master List Application
The Lozelle and Katie Flickinger Graham House
1789 Santa Barbara Avenue
Summary Conclusion of Eligibility Under Master List Criteria 1
Timeline 2
Historic Context 5
Period of Significance 7
Eligibility Under Master List Criteria: Significance 8
Eligibility Under Master List Criteria: Integrity 11
Summary Conclusion of Eligibility Under Master List Criteria
The Lozelle and Katie Flickinger Graham House at 1789 Santa Barbara is one of a pair of
1884 houses—both added to the Contributing Properties List of Historic Resources in
1987—that appear to be the Railroad Historic District’s oldest surviving buildings,
predating the arrival of the Southern Pacific in 1894. The house is a rare example of an
Italianate building in San Luis Obispo virtually unaltered from its original form and
retaining its original features. It is eligible for the Master List as
1. “one of the most unique and important historic properties and resources in terms
of age”
2. “one of the most unique and important historic properties and resources in terms
of … architectural … significance”
Submitted for owners Michael and Paden Hughes by James Papp, PhD, Historicities LLC,
Historian and Architectural Historian, Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification
Standards. 6 March 2020.
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Timeline
1827 William B. Graham is born in Indiana.1
1830 Joseph Henry Flickinger is born in Germany (probably Alsace) and grows
up in Erie, Pennsylvania.2
1849 At 19 Flickinger rounds Cape Horn and opens meat market in San Jose
during California’s first state legislative session in that city. Spends
summer of 1850 in the gold country, returns to meat market in fall; in
1851 adds general merchandise; in 1853 switches to wholesale cattle
business (Foote).
1857 Lozelle F. Graham is born in Indiana, only child of physician William B.
Graham and Lydia B. Graham of New Jersey (1870 US Census).
1859 Katie Flickinger is born with twin Charles in California, daughter of J. H.
Flickinger and Mary Smith Flickinger of New York (1860 US Census).
1860 According to the US Census, J. H.
Flickinger, butcher in San Jose, has $3,000
in real and $1,400 in personal estate and
lives next to father-in-law China Smith,
nurseryman.
1870 According to the US Census, J. H.
Flickinger, cattle dealer in San Jose, has
real and personal estate of $20,000 each,
in household with wife, five children, a
servant, laborer, and vaquero.
1870–80 Between 1870 and 1880, the Grahams
move from unincorporated Tyner City in
Indiana to Napa, California, where
William Graham continues to practice as
a physician and L. F. Graham becomes a
clerk (US Census).
1880 J. H. Flickinger purchases pasture land to
convert to orchard (Foote).
Figure 1. Ad for Lozelle Graham’s store, weekly San Luis
Obispo Tribune, 20 June 1884
1. Grave and 1870 US Census.
2. H. S. Foote, Pen Pictures from the “Garden of the World” (Chicago: Lewis, 1888).
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1884 June L. F. Graham opens a dry and fancy goods store in Schwab’s Building,
Higuera Street, San Luis Obispo,3 and William Graham moves to San Luis
to practice as a physician.4
1884 Nov. 6 George C. Cocke, for $300 gold coin, transfers ownership to William and L.
F. Graham of two westerly gore blocks formed by Osos Street (later Santa
Barbara Avenue) cutting diagonally through blocks 176 and 181 in the
Loomis Addition (County Land Records). By 1903 the eastern gores will
become El Triangulo, the city’s first and, for more than 40 years, only park.
1885 Jan. 8 William and L. F. Graham transfer ownership of lots 5, 6, and 7, block 176,
to Lydia Graham for “ten dollars gold coin” (ibid.).
1885 Jan. 9 The weekly San Luis Obispo Tribune describes Dr. and L. F. Graham’s
respective houses on “Cock’s addition.” The location and dimensions are
consistent with the early dimensions of 1749 and current dimensions of
1789 Santa Barbara Avenue (on lots 6 and 8, block 176, respectively).
On the same day William and Lozelle transfer ownership of lot 8 to “Katie
Graham” “in consideration of the love and affection which they bear
towards and for the better support and maintenance of the said party of
the second part” (ibid).
1885 Jan. 19 Katie Flickinger marries L. F. Graham in San Jose.
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1886 J. H. Flickinger leaves the
cattle dealing and opens a
fruit canning and drying
factory, by 1888 planting
250 acres with 25,000
trees, including cherries,
peaches, apricots, and
plums (Foote).
Figure 2. The Flickinger cattle brand and
cannery trademark
1888 Aug. 30 The Morning Tribune announces L. F. Graham’s move to San Jose to work
for J. H. Flickinger’s Pacific Orchard and Cannery. He eventually becomes
president of the company.
1888 Sep. L. F. Graham serves as superintendent of merchandise at San Luis Obispo’s
Agricultural District Fair.6
1889 June The family of A. M. Kurtz, owner of the Phoenix Pharmacy at Higuera and
Chorro, moves to the Lozelle and Katie Graham House.7
3. “New Dry Goods Store,” weekly San Luis Obispo Tribune, 6 June 1884.
4. “Old Napaites in Southern California,” weekly Napa Register, 1 May 1885.
5. Santa Clara County marriage certificate.
6. “The Fair,” Morning Tribune, 21 Sep. 1888.
7. Morning Tribune, 20 June 1899.
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1894 May 5 Southern Pacific completes its connection from San Francisco to San Luis.
1896 Dec. 19 Katie Graham transfers ownership of lot 8, block 176 to James S. Jones, hog
and cattle dealer (County Land Records).
1901 Mar. 31 The Southern Pacific begins scheduled train service from Los Angeles to
San Luis Obispo.8
1903 Apr. Jones employs Maino to build a $3,000, five-room cottage at 972 Church
Street behind the Lozelle and Katie Graham House. He expects to occupy it
in August, when Southern Pacific conductor Will H. Metz and family will
move into the Graham House.9
1904 Aug. 5, 6 Jones, having separated from his wife Alice Herron Jones, transfers lot 5
and the eastern part of lot 8 to her as her portion of community property
(County Land Records).
1904 Dec. 3 J. S. Jones sells the western portion of lot 8 with the house at 972 Church
Street at a loss to newly arrived barber Frank Smith, who dies three
months later of traumatic empyema.10
1905 Jan. 12 L. F. Graham, president of J. H. Flickinger, is elected founding president of
the Canners’ League of California (cafruitcanning.com).
1905 Feb. The Metzes move to Islay Street so the reunited Joneses can move back to
the Lozelle and Katie Graham House.11
1905 June 8 Alice Jones transfers lot 5 and the eastern part of lot 8 back to J. S. Jones
(County Land Records).
1905 Nov. 7 J. S. Jones transfers the eastern part of lot 8 to Theresa L. Bell (County Land
Records). Bell and her husband own numerous properties and are in the
lodging business.
1905 Dec. The original Tribune Building, latterly a lodging house near Morro and
Marsh, is bought by Theresa Bell and moved to the north end of the
western part of lot 8, next to the Lozelle and Katie Graham House, so the
Elks can build a hall on its previous site.12
1906 Feb. 15 The Tribune Building, now the Laurel House, opens itd dining room for
boarding.13
1913 The five-room Lozelle and Katie Graham House is offered for rent,
furnished.14
8. “Coast Line Will Soon Be Opened,” Morning Tribune, 12 Mar. 1901.
9. Morning Tribune, 8 July 1903.
10. County Land Records; “Death of F. A. Smith,” Morning Tribune, 19 March 1906.
11. Morning Tribune, 22 Feb. 1905.
12. “Moving the House,” Morning Tribune, 13 Dec. 1905
13. “Personal Mentions,” Morning Tribune, 15 Feb. 1906
14. Daily Telegram, 16 July 1913.
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1915–16 Mrs. R. O. La Rue offers to rent the “large front room” to “one or two
gentlemen.” Board is also offered.15 La Rue’s husband Roscoe works as a
grocery packer at the Channel Commercial Building across the road.16
1922 The house is occupied by engine watchman Warren P. Russell and his
wife.17 Light housekeeping rooms are offered (11 Jan.) and a furnished
apartment with bath (16 Oct.).
1940–42 The house is rented by railroad fireman Russell Mott, wife Ollie, and their
9-year-old son (US Census and San Luis Obispo Telephone Directory).
1946–79 From 1946 and throughout the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s the Lozelle and Katie
Graham House is occupied by William H. and his wife (and latterly widow)
Jessie Bradbeer, operators of Southside Market, 100 Higuera.18
1973 The house’s address changes from 149 to 1789.
1987 San Luis Obispo places the Lozelle and Katie Graham House (1789 Santa
Barbara Avenue) and the William and Lydia Graham House (1749 Santa
Barbara Avenue) on the Contributing Properties List of Historic Resources.
1998 San Luis Obispo establishes the Railroad Historic District
Historic Context
San Luis Obispo’s defining characteristic in the early American period was its isolation
from California’s population centers in San Francisco and Los Angeles. By 1851 a San
Francisco mail and passenger steamer was making a fortnightly circuit from San Francisco
to Monterey, San Luis, Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and San Diego and was the chief source of
news in and out.19 It was also possible to ride north or south, though banditry and murder
on the roads inspired outbreaks of vigilantism in 1851, 1853, and 1858 and continued into
the 1860s. Notably, while California’s population was almost ten percent Chinese by the
1860 census, it was scarcely above 1 percent in San Luis Obispo County that year, and no
Chinese people are recorded in the town’s population by the 1870 census (though the San
Luis Obispo Tribune records a Chinese laundry in town by that year [“Assaulting Chinese,”
30 Apr.), and Ah Louis is supposed to have arrived in 1870, as well).
By the early 1870s, San Luis Obispo had steamship connections every week, on the San
Francisco to San Diego line and a local San Francisco, Monterey, San Simeon, and San Luis
line. When the Pacific Coast Railway opened between Post San Luis (Avila) in 1876, a
steamer arrived every three to four days.
Milled lumber, which came in by sailing ship, was deposited at lumber yards on the coast—
Port San Luis, Cayucos, and Morro Bay—advertised in the San Luis Obispo Tribune from
15. Daily Telegram, 6 and 14 Dec. 1915.
16. Draft Registration 1917.
17. “Married Sunday,” Daily Telegram, 2 May 1922.
18. San Luis Obispo Telephone Directories and Polk’s San Luis Obispo City Directories.
19. Southern Coast Express advertisement, daily Alta California, 21 Jan. 1851.
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that newspaper’s founding in 1869. The first lumber yard in San Luis Obispo was
advertised in 1872.20
The Hays-Latimer Adobe had its veranda superstructure and presumably siding by 1865,
as seen in L. Trousset’s panoramic painting of the town at the Mission San Luis Obispo de
Tolosa. The town’s oldest documented extant wooden buildings include the 1873 St.
Stephen’s Episcopal Church and balloon frame Tribune-Republic Building and the 1874 box
frame Norcross House and balloon frame Mee Heng Low (the original Ah Louis building).
Pierre Dallidet, a carpenter by professional training, built his new house of adobe,
presumably by necessity, in 1860, but already by 1870, the fact that Juan Cappe was
building his new saloon and store of adobe was considered odd and attributed by the
Tribune to his Mexican patria.21 This would be the last recorded adobe construction in San
Luis Obispo before the 1939 Heyd Adobe. In 1887, 573 steamers entered Port San Luis, in
addition to sailing ships and steam schooners, and 8,837,700 feet of lumber was imported
through the port.22
On land in 1884, when Lozelle and William Graham built their houses, the Southern Pacific
only went southeast from San Francisco as far as Soledad. In 1886 it was extended through
the Salinas Valley to Templeton, newly developed for the purpose by Chauncey Phillips’
West Coast Land Co and named after the son of Charles Crocker of the Big Four. In 1887 the
SP reached northwest from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, and another of the Big Four, Gov.
Leland Stanford expressed the intention of closing the gap between there and Templeton in
“a few months” (op. cit. 66).
By 1888 the SP was pressuring the citizens of San Luis Obispo for free right of way if they
were to extend the railroad that far (71). An effort by local politicians, businessmen,
ranchers, and farmers—eventually extending to communities from San Jose to Ventura that
would also benefit from a coastal railroad—led to the donation of much right of way and
money raised to purchase more.
In 1889, by which time Lozelle and Katie Graham had returned to San Jose, the SP extended
as far southeast as Santa Margarita and as far northwest as Ellwood (Goleta), with the most
difficult terrain, the Cuesta and Gaviota passes, between them. The railroad’s intentions
about closing the gap became less definite, with its general superintendent suggesting ten
years out to commence (op. cit. 105), and Crocker saying it depended on the area’s
economic development (106). San Luis Obispo’s leading citizens still hadn’t wrangled the
rights of way, and possibly much of the SP’s talk was intended as pressure. By 1891 the
rights of way were largely obtained, by 1892 construction begun on seven tunnels between
Santa Margarita and San Luis Obispo. The first passenger train arrived 5 May 1894.
Sixteen months earlier, the San Francisco Chronicle had predicted that, as a result of the
railroad, “San Luis Obispo will rival Los Angeles, perhaps surpass it. What will the 1900
census show?” (133). The 1900 census showed that San Luis Obispo’s population had risen
20. Schwartz, Harford & Co. advertisement, 1 June 1872.
21. “Town Improvements,” San Luis Obispo Tribune, 3 Sep. 1870; “Enterprising,” 24 Sep.
1870.
22. Loren Nicholson, Rails Across the Ranchos (Fresno: Valley Publishers, 1980), p. 60.
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from 2,995 to 3,021, or less than 1 percent, its smallest gain in past or future history,
despite the population of the United States increasing 21 percent over the same period.
Within a year of the SP’s arrival, the Ramona Hotel had gone bankrupt. The railroad was
not the economic engine expected.
By 1900 the San Luis–Santa Barbara leg still had not been completed. The line reached
Guadalupe by 1895, Surf by 1897. Work paused two years, and the Ellwood–Surf section
was finally finished in March 1901. President William McKinley rode it from Los Angeles to
San Francisco in May, stopping in San Luis for forty-five minutes and speaking for five.
Significantly, Frances Margaret Milne’s poem about the change that rail would bring to San
Luis Obispo was written in 1901, not 1894. Referential to Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted
Village, it was penned in the context of utopian hopes about California before big business
took over, the same context of Frank Norris’s California railroad novel The Octopus.
The Passing of the Village
(In California)
It was folded away from strife,
In the beautiful pastoral hills;
And the mountain peaks kept watch and
ward
O‘er the peace that the valley fills—
Kept watch and ward lest the bold world
pass
The fair green rampart of hills.
No factory din profaned
The joy of the summer morn;
But the tinkle of bells from the pasture-
slope,
And the rustle of waving corn,
And the wreathing smoke from the cottage
hearth,
Saluted the rising morn.
The rains of the winter fell
In benison on its sod;
And the smiling fields of the spring looked
up,
A thanksgiving glad to God;
And the little children laughed to see
The wild-flowers star the sod.
The opulent Summer came,
Like a queen, to the vale she loved;
And lavished her gifts with a royal grace
That never a wish reproved;
Oh, she lingered long, as if loath to leave
The sunny vale that she loved.
The wains on the highway thronged,
O‘erladen with Autumn’s spoil;
Like a train triumphal, from conquest won,
They passed from the fields of toil
The fields where Labor hath kingly right
To rifle the garnered spoil.
The traffic of simple life
That draws man near to man;
The village street, and the farmstead home
The tie of a kindred clan;
And the common bond to the “brown old
earth,”
The primal strength of man.
“Let not ambition mock”
Such “destiny obscure”;
The mighty stream, that a navy bears,
Was fed from the fountain pure
Of a hillside spring that its freshness kept
In the depths of the glade obscure.
* * * * *
Hark! hark! to the thunderous roar!
Like a demon of fable old,
The fiery steed of the rail hath swept
Through the ancient mountain-hold,
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And the green hills shudder to feel his
breath
The challenge of New to Old.
But the spirit of man awakes,
And thrills to the larger life;
A force resistless his soul hath claimed,
He is part of the great world-strife!
And far and dim in the distance fades
That first fair dawn of life.
Yet, day of power and pride!
Forget not thou that dawn;
From simple hearts, and from simple
homes,
Is the strength of a nation drawn;
And ever the earth her life renews
In the dew and the peace of dawn.
San Luis Obispo, March, 1901.
The Chronicle’s hopes were put off by a decade. By 1910 San Luis Obispo had grown to
5,157 people, a 70 percent increase, though it has yet to rival or surpass LA. Terminus of
the north and south lines and midway point of the through lines, San Luis Obispo’s largest
employer remained the Southern Pacific till 1956—two years after the first two miles of
freeway were built through town—when the railroad switched from steam to diesel.
On 7 September 1957 the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune announced
construction of the first twelve-unit section of freeway builder Alex Madonna’s “long-
planned super motel,” a Swiss Homeland–Ranch–National Park Service Rustic Style
confection by Beverly Hills architect Louis Gould. It was planned as a restaurant,
convention center, and 160 rooms on twenty acres. Hearst Castle, a car-centric attraction,
opened in 1958 to become, along with Highway 1, the county’s biggest attraction. The Age
of Rail had ended for San Luis Obispo, the Freeway Age begun.
Lozelle and Katie Graham House Period of Significance: 1884–1942
The Lozelle and Katie Graham House is significant for its late-nineteenth-century Italianate
architecture; as an outlier in the southwest expansion of San Luis Obispo in 1884,
colonizing what was to become the Railroad Historic District ten years before the arrival of
the Southern Pacific; and as a part of the district’s social and aesthetic fabric during the its
rapid expansion after the SP’s San Francisco link and its 1901 connection to Los Angeles.
The SP continued its dominance as the city’s largest employer until the switch from steam
to diesel in 1956. The Graham House’s period of significance extends from its 1884
construction through to its last documented association with employees of the railroad and
connected industries in 1942.
The preponderance of evidence shows that Lozelle and his father Dr. William Graham built
the house in 1884 on lot 8, block 176, at the same time as another house on lot 6, the
William and Lydia Graham House, still extant but much altered. Lozelle and William
Graham purchased blocks 176 and 181 from George C. Cocke in early November 1884, the
San Luis Obispo Tribune described their two houses “in Cock’s addition” (later referred to as
the Graham subdivision) in early January 1885, and ownership of lots 8 and 6 were
transferred to the two men’s respective wives at the same time.
A photograph from Terrace Hill circa 1892 clearly shows the two houses in their current
location as an isolated pair. In photographs from Terrace Hill circa 1906, the Lozelle and
Katie Graham House has acquired neighbors on lot 8: the James and Alice Herron Jones
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House at 972 Church Street and the Laurel House boarding establishment, the former
Tribune Building, which was moved to 1763 Santa Barbara Avenue from Morro and Marsh
in late 1905. The Alexander Galewski House (1904) was built on the other side of the
William and Lydia Graham House at 1725; a 1½-story building went up at 1717 in 1902;
and the Park View Hotel—built at 1703 in 1897, after its predecessor, transported from the
corner of Morro and Monterey in 1895, burnt to the ground—finishes the block.
Figure 3. Circa 1892 photograph from Terrace Hill, full view. The circa 1892 photograph can
be dated by the presence of structures along the west side of Osos Street between Buchon and
Islay absent from the 1891 Sanborn Map but on the 1903 version and by the absence of the
1893 addition to the Mission. The Graham Houses are just to the left and below the
photograph’s midpoint. Note the lack of railroad infrastructure in the foreground and any
other Railroad District structures that survive.
From the late 1890s through the early twentieth century, the Lozelle and Katie Graham
House was occupied by people with a connection to the business of the district, including
the livestock dealer J. S. Jones (1890s), SP conductor Will H. Metz (1900s), grocery packer
Roscoe La Rue (1910s), engine watchman Warren Russell (1920s), and railroad fireman
Russell Mott (1940–42). After this there is no documentation linking its occupants to the
railroad or connected industries.
By the 1906 photographs, the Lozelle and Katie Graham has acquired roof cresting that
subsequently disappears. The period of significance would allow its restoration or allow it
not to be restored.
Eligibility Under Master List Criteria: Significance
1. “One of the most unique and important historic properties and resources in terms of age”
In June of 1884, Lozelle F. “Charlie” Graham opened his dry and fancy goods business in San
Luis Obispo, where his father had also moved to open a practice), having been active
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treating smallpox in Napa till at least the previous year.23 On 6 November 1884, according
to County Land Records, George C. Cocke transferred to William and L. F. Graham for $300
in gold coin ownership of the two gore blocks formed by Osos Street (later Santa Barbara
Avenue) cutting diagonally through blocks 176 and 181 of the Loomis Addition (see fig. 4).
On 9 January 1885 the following squib appeared in the weekly San Luis Obispo Tribune:
The 6 and 8 lots of block 176, Cocke’s subdivision, later
known as Graham’s subdivision, was a block away from Islay
and Morro, which was probably chosen by the Tribune as the
nearest inhabited area for reference, as nothing would be
built at the corners of Islay and Morro for some years.
The main house and wing dimensions given for William and L. F. Graham’s houses are
consistent with 1789 Santa Barbara Avenue and the early form of 1749. On the day before
the squib appeared, Dr. Graham and his son transferred lot 6, where 1749 stands, and lots 5
and 7 to the doctor’s wife Lydia (County Land Records). The following day, they transferred
lot 8 to Katie Flickinger, who would marry Lozelle 10 days later in San Jose. A new house
was waiting for the new bride, with the house of her parents-in-law a hundred feet away.
Figure 4. Detail from 1894 Henderson
Sketch Map, notated Graham subdivision of
the Loomis Addition: bisected blocks 176
and 181. By the 1903 Sanborn Map, the
eastern halves are El Triangulo, San Luis
Obispo’s first (and, till the 1940s, only) park.
Figure 5. Detail from 1903 Sanborn Map,
showing lot 8 of block 176 with 972 Church
(lower left) and 1789 Santa Barbara (lower
right); the former Tribune Building will be
introduced between 1789 and 1749 (upper
right on lot 6) to become the Laurel House.
23. “Old Napaites in Southern California,” weekly Napa Register, 1 May 1885; “Local Briefs,”
Napa Register, 1 June 1883.
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A panoramic photograph from Terrace Hill taken circa 1892 shows the Lozelle and Katie
Graham House and the William and Lydia Graham House (figs. 3 and 6).
Figure 6. Detail. History Center of San Luis Obispo County.
Figure 7. 1906 photograph from Terrace Hill (composite, detail), showing 972 Church Street
and 1789, 1763, and 1749 Santa Barbara Avenue. Cal Poly Special Collections and Archives.
Figure 8. Google Maps satellite globe view of the same four buildings, February 2020
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2. “One of the most unique and important historic properties and resources in terms of …
architectural … significance”
Character-defining features include modest size and asymmetric footprint of the mid-
nineteenth-century irregular cottage, promoted in the Gardenesque aesthetic by architect–
landscape architects John Claudius Loudon and Andrew Jackson Downing; obtuse gable
angle; deep eaves; twinned windows; window and door crowns; shiplap siding; corner
boards; entrance porch with square columns and pilasters, arches, and classically
referenced fretwork of the American Italianate style in wood.
There are limited surviving examples of Italianate architecture in San Luis Obispo, among
them some of San Luis Obispo’s most prominent historic buildings. They include the NRHP
Jack House (1878) and Jack Wash House (by 1886); Master List Hays-Latimer Adobe (wood
outer structure by 1865), Dana-Parsons House (circa 1875), Sauer Bakery (circa 1875,
reconstructed), Manderscheid House (by 1886), Virginia Levering Latimer House (circa
1888), and Fitzgerald House (1902); Contributing List 651 Buchon, 1415 Nipomo, and
1208 Palm (the Booth House); and unlisted but NRHP-eligible Pinho House.
In practice, the Master List Italianate houses are those with a high degree of integrity, while
those on the Contributing List have had their street facades compromised: 651 Buchon,
whose front porch has been partially enclosed; 1415 Nipomo, which has had railings added
to its ground floor entry porch and a balcony to the porch’s roof; and 1208 Palm, whose
street façade bay window and porch have been largely removed.
The Lozelle and Katie Flickinger Graham House embodies the irregular, the cottage, and the
Italianate forms, and no other Italianate structure in San Luis Obispo has a greater degree
of integrity and hence ability to communicate the concepts behind its historic forms, down
to its original cast iron acanthus leaf grilles, one of them visible in the 1906 photograph.
Irregularity
Part of the Lozelle and Katie Graham House’s significance lies in its asymmetric wings. The
great Scottish landscape architect John Loudon—who invented the Gardenesque landscape
embodied by the Jack Garden—in his 1834 Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa
Architecture and Furniture, displays dozens of cottage designs. The eleventh, in the Gothic
Revival style, is an L-shaped structure with an entrance porch placed in the interior angle,
like the Graham House.
This “being the first design in which we have made a great departure from symmetry,”
Loudon feels obliged to offer 1,300 words of “remarks on the principle of irregularity in
architecture,” tracing the first English argument for irregularity in buildings to Sir Uvedale
Price’s 1794 Essay on the Picturesque and Price’s inspiration to Sir Joshua Reynolds’
observation, in his 1786 “Discourse XIII” to the Royal Academy: “It often happens that
additions have been made to houses at various times, for use or pleasure. As such buildings
depart from regularity they now and then acquire something of scenery by this accident,
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which I should think might not unsuccessfully be adopted by an architect in an original
plan, if it does not too much interfere with convenience.”24
Loudon’s L-shaped cottage is Gothic Revival, the embodiment of the picturesque for the
English in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, but Gothic was soon joined by
the Italianate as a variety of the picturesque. Alexander Jackson Downing, the founder of
American landscape architecture, writes in his 1850 The Architecture of Country Houses,
that Italianate asymmetry “permits additions, wings, etc., with the greatest facility and
always with increasing effect,” a practical feature for Americans with growing families and
growing wealth and a recognition that the Italianate style not only imitated accretive
architecture, it made further accretions possible. Ironically, though the Lozelle and Katie
Graham House was to be divided inside to accommodate roomers and boarders, its exterior
was never added to, while the similarly irregular William and Lydia Graham House had a
front wing added after the 1956 Sanborn Map to make its facade symmetrical.
John Loudon’s irregular “XI. Dwelling for a Man and His Wife, and One or Two Children, with a
Cow-house and Pigsty,” Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture. The cow house
and pigsty (as well as a water closet) were en suite in back.
The Cottage
Loudon and Downing are chiefly remembered for their impact as landscape architects but
wrote about and designed rural and suburban buildings, which were both part of the
landscape and had landscapes created for them. These generally took the form of a cottage
(a word of English origin and tied to the idea that the lower classes were picturesque) or
24. London: Longman, pp. 52–53.
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villa (a word of Italian origin and suggestive of the notion that the upper classes could be
picturesque as well).
The border between them was not always clear, possibly because the middle classes soon
adopted and reduced the suburban villa, while the upper classes found the notion of a
cottage attractively twee, particularly if it could be made massive enough. In Downing’s
1842 Cottage Residences; Or, A Series of Designs for Cottages and Cottage-Villas and Their
Grounds Adapted to North America, he features a plan for a “cottage in the Rhine style” that
is two-and-a-half stories tall with a three-story tower. William Comstock’s 1883 pattern
book American Cottages includes a five-story castle in the Bermudas. The opulent Gilded
Age “cottages” of Newport have become an American meme.
Small Gothic Cottage from A. J. Downing’s
The Architecture of Country Houses (1850)
Rusticated cottage from Downing’s Cottage
Residences (1853)
The newlywed Grahams’ house, however, was definitively in the core cottage tradition of
the nineteenth century: both modest in size and picturesque in design. It was affordable
housing with aesthetic pretension. The pattern books of the mid nineteenth century tend to
render the irregular ell or “gable-front-and-wing” cottage in styles whose steep roofs can
accommodate a half story, such as Gothic, English Rural, or even Second Empire. The low
roofline of the Italianate style restricted it to either one story or two, and the Graham father
and son, neither needing space for children, chose one story.
Italianate Architecture in America
The Italianate style was intended in its various forms to evoke the Italian Renaissance and
Baroque. Introduced by architect John Nash in England in 1802 in the country villa
Cronkhill,25 it was elaborated in major English country houses of the 1830s and 1840s,
prominently including Queen Victoria’s Osborne House (1845–51) on the Isle of Wight,
designed by Prince Albert.
25. Historic England, Cronkhill, Details: historicengland.org.uk. Accessed 19 June 2019.
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Alexander Jackson Davis popularized Italianate architecture in the United States through
his designs, including additions to Blandwood at Greenboro, North Carolina, in 1844,
thought to be the earliest Italianate structure in the United States, though the Metropolitan
Museum of Art has Davis’s 1836 design for an Italianate villa for James Smillie at Rondout,
New York26 that was never completed.27 The style had an airiness and shadiness suited to
many American climates, an informality and irregularity suited to American life, and a bit of
historicist pomposity suited to our national sense of self-importance.
Alexander Jackson Davis’s unexecuted 1836 design for an Italianate villa at Rondout.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As Davis’s younger partner Andrew Jackson Downing pointed out in 1850,
Originally adapted to the manifestation of social life in a climate almost the
counterpart of that of the middle and southern portions of our country—at least so
far as relates to eight months of the year—it is made to conform exactly to our tastes
and habits with, perhaps, less alteration than any other style. Its broad roofs, ample
verandas, and arcades are especially agreeable in our summers of dazzling sunshine,
26. Amelia Peck, ed., Alexander Jackson Davis, American Architect, 1803—1892 (New York:
Rizzoli, 1992), color plate 11.
27. John Thorn, “Alexander Jackson Davis, Picturesque American,” [Hudson River]:
hudsonriverbracked.blogspot.com. Accessed 19 June 2019.
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and […] it has much to render it a favorite in the middle and western sections of our
Union.28
In addition, the “style is one that expresses not wholly the spirit of country life nor of town
life but something between both and that is a mingling of both” (286). In other words, it
was appropriate for our expanding suburbs, like the southeast edge of San Luis Obispo.
The style moved from country houses and suburban villas to urban townhouses and
commercial and public buildings. Though Italianate architecture reached its height in the
United States in the 1850s through 1870s, it had an “enduring hold” and was “still
fashionable in rural communities” through the 1880s.29 Indeed, San Luis Obispo’s 1902
Fitzgerald House at Chorro and Buchon Streets is Italianate in its proportions, architectural
conventions like its flat-roofed front porch and square and semi-hexagonal bays, decorative
elements like its nonfunctional balustrade and neo-baroque corbels, and asymmetry.
Downing wrote in 1850 that “the leading features of this style are familiar to most of our
readers.”
Roofs rather flat, and projecting upon brackets or cantilevers; windows of various
forms, but with massive dressings, frequently running into the round arch when the
opening is an important one […]; arcades supported on arches or verandas with
simple columns (ibid.)
To add to Downing’s list, the characteristics of Italianate architecture include
• low hip roofs or broad gables
• occasional classical pediments and frequently other classical reference
• decorative roof balustrades or “widow’s walks”
• deep eaves, often incorporating a cornice supported by curved and sculptural corbels
issuing from a frieze
• in wood, horizontal siding, usually shiplap
• horizontal wall banding, molding panels, and quoining or corner boards
• asymmetrical facades
• flat-roofed verandas with columns integrating bases, capitals, and sometimes corbels, the
columns frequently square with chamfered corners and without intervening balustrades
• Romanesque or segmentally arched doorways and, more rarely, arches between veranda
columns
• tall windows, often paired, usually crowned, with rectangular but often Romanesque
arched—occasionally segmentally arched—tops
28. Andrew Jackson Downing, The Architecture of Country Houses (New York: Dover,1969),
p. 285.
29. Kenneth Naversen, West Coast Victorians: A Nineteenth-Century Legacy (Wilsonville:
Beautiful America, 1987), p. 96, 106.
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• bay windows, more commonly semi-octagonal or semi-hexagonal but also occasionally
square
• window crowns and other elaborated surrounds
• occasionally an asymmetrically placed tower
A Field Guide to American Houses identifies six principle Italianate subtypes—simple hipped
roof, centered gable, asymmetrical, towered, front-gabled roof, and town house—of which
the Lozelle and Katie Graham House is asymmetrical.
The Italianate Architecture of the Lozelle and Katie Graham House
The asymmetry of the Graham House is typically Italianate, but the extent of the front
wing’s thrust is unusual (though not unusual for the irregular cottage form). The front and
side gables of the Graham House are at the broad, 110-degree angle characteristic of mid to
late Italianate gabled structures; compare to the 80-degree angles of gables on the 1874
Gothic Revival Norcross House.
The exterior walls are sheathed in shiplap, an almost universal siding for wooden Italianate
structures on the West Coast, emphasizing horizontality. The twinned sash windows on the
Santa Barbara Avenue entrance facade are also a typical Italianate structural feature.
The twinned windows, singleton windows on the side walls, and front door have
characteristically Italianate crowns, though, due to economy of height in the entrance
porch, the door crown terminates in the porch’s ceiling. The one-over-one sashes are also
characteristically Italianate.
A transverse, often full-width front porch is a typical feature of suburban Italianate houses
(see in particular the Hays-Latimer Adobe, Dana-Parsons House, Jack House, Virginia
Latimer House, Pinho House, and Fitzgerald House), while entry porches on Italianate
townhouses tend to surround just the front door and steps. In A Field Guide to American
Houses, Virginia and Lee McAlester write, “The simple gable-front-and-wing is a common
Italianate form,” and they show one one-story and three two-story examples, each with an
entry porch tucked into the interior angle of the ell. But all of these porches are transverse.
The Graham House entrance porch that runs back from the street along the front wing is a
common cottage form but unusual Italianate form (though not unknown: e.g., the Italianate
Jacob Jenne House of Coupeville, Washington).
All the more important, then, for the designer to use the atypical entrance porch to
emphasize typically Italianate decorative features. Rising out of a square, chamfered
column on the right and pilaster on the left is a modestly sized but finely articulated wood
entry arch with a false keystone and fretwork acanthus leaves, emphasizing the Italianate
style’s playfulness with its Ancient Roman roots. Keystone and acanthus leaves are
repeated in the elongated arch on the porch’s side. The porch’s flat roof also embodies the
Italianate, and the one column and two pilasters connecting the porch to each wing (an
economical arrangement) retain their typical bases, wide capitals, and astragals. Sadly,
railing has been added, but modern Americans seem unable to stay on stairs and porches
without assistance, unlike their ancestors.
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Entry arch with false keystone, fretwork
acanthus leaves, blank frieze, and cornice,
supported by square pilaster and column
with capitals and astragals
Cast iron crawl space vent grille with
acanthus leaf pattern
Delightfully, the acanthus leaves in profile are repeated in the cast iron vent grilles,
showing a consistency of aesthetic vision by the unknown designer, likely an architect-
builder working with pattern books and decorative features from a manufacturer.
The acanthus leaf has a Greek architectural origin and is extensively used in Greek Revival
architecture, including in the Fremont Theater. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, in De architectura
(30–15 BC), the only treatise on architecture surviving from classical antiquity, recounted
its origin legend. An old nurse went to put a basket of offerings on the grave of a young
woman who was her former charge. When she returned, acanthus leaves had grown up
through the basket; hence they became a symbol of rebirth. Their sinuous forms join the
Roman tradition, Neoclassical, and Italianate. They are used extensively on the 1893
Richardsonian Romanesque J. P. Andrews Bank in sight of the 1942 Fremont Theater.
The Graham House’s eaves have the shady depth but lack the supporting corbels of more
high style Italianate houses like the Jack, Dana-Parsons, and Virginia Latimer Houses, but
this lack of corbeling is consistent with such plainer Italianate structures as 1415 Nipomo,
651 Buchon, and the Pinho House.
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Graham House porch viewed from the side with faux arch and keystone and fretwork
acanthus leaves
Faux arch and keystone, corbels, linear frieze, and cornice, Hays-Latimer Adobe (before 1865)
Capitals, angled arch, blank frieze, and cornice, no longer extant, on Booth House, still extant,
1208 Palm Street (circa 1885)
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Eligibility Under Master List Criteria: Integrity
1906 (detail)
• Location
The Lozelle and Katie Graham House retains integrity of location, sited where mapping has
shown it since 1903, photography since 1892, and newspaper reference since 1885
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• Design
The house has remarkable integrity of design, retaining its original footprint and
decorative features. There have been none of the room additions common to and even
anticipated in irregular Italianate houses. There have been few changes in utilitarian
features: the addition of railing to the entrance porch and staircase, a small back window to
the south facade of the house, and an attic vent to the front gable; the replacement of the
front door, entrance transom glass, and window sashes and panes (in a way sensitive to
their proportions); and the removal of structural elements from the rear porch. Roof
cresting was added sometime after 1892 and removed sometime after 1907.
• Setting
The setting of the Lozelle and Katie Graham House has changed dramatically from 1884,
although the William and Lydia Graham House still provides original context that
communicates the subject house’s significance as one of a pair. The unusual gore blocks of
the Graham subdivision also remain intact.
The period of significance for the Lozelle and Katie Graham House, however, extends into
the railroad era, capturing the property’s integration into the new environment of that
trend in history. The Tribune Building, transported to lot 8 to become a boarding
establishment, still stands next door on Santa Barbara Avenue, as does the Jones House on
Church, built by the prosperous stock dealer who lived in the Lozelle and Katie Graham
House before construction of his own house and the again after he had to sell the new one.
Beyond the Tribune Building and William and Lydia Graham House, the remainder of the
1700 block of Santa Barbara Street retains its late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century
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buildings: the Master List Alexander Galewski House (1904), William M. Duff House (1901),
and the Chicago Hotel (1897), now The Establishment.
El Triangulo, viewed from the house, is now bisected by Osos rather than Church, but it is
still a green park with trees retaining its triangular form, and though the view of Terrace
Hill is now blocked from the Graham House, it is blocked by the 1907 Hotel Park. On the
opposite side of Santa Barbara from the Graham House, early Railroad District buildings—
from the Allen House and Hageman Sanitarium to the Channel Commercial Company—still
stand, the latter adaptively reused with modern additions but still dominant in the
cityscape with its redbrick machicolated exterior. The immediate area retains its low-built
suburban profile.
The house had a stand-alone garage added some time after 1926. This partially blocks the
view of the very rear portion of the house’s south facade from the street, but its small size
and low profile does not greatly compromise setting.
• Materials
Character-defining shiplap siding; window frames; fascias; and such porch features as the
column, pilasters, arches, and fretwork appear to be original. Wood shingle on the roof and
tin on the front porch roof during the period of significance have been replaced, as would
be expected; the former is now asphalt shingle. Window glass has also been replaced. The
chimney appears to be original.
• Workmanship
Original carpentry, both utilitarian and decorative, still remains and still delights,
particularly in the all-important Italianate porch.
• Feeling
There is more car traffic on Santa Barbara Avenue and less train traffic on the rails, diesel
has replaced steam, and horns have replaced steam whistles, but this is still a functioning
and aesthetically recognizable railroad district. Perhaps nothing better captures the
Railroad District feeling than a poem by Jack Kerouac written a decade after the Graham
House’s period of significance but while the Southern Pacific still ran on steam. In 1953,
after he had written On the Road but before it was published, Kerouac, who through the
graces of Al Hinkle’s uncle, had got job as a brakeman on the SP, stayed, probably after he
had been laid off, for three months at the Hotel Colonial, originally the Chicago Hotel, later
the Park View, and now The Establishment. The poem starts to the south of the Graham
House, with the Channel Commercial Company’s building (by then Juillard Cockroft):
Late afternoon in San
Luis, the Juillard Cockroft
redbrick courthouse warehouse
building stands in the
profound 6 pm clarity
to the stwigger of all
the birdies—some of
the birds trill, some sing
like humans—a faroff
racing motor—the still
“suburban” trees—always
the rippling pine fronds,
the breeze—The green
pale grass mtn. with its
raw earth cut telephone
pole & scattered cows—
the green dazzle of
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grayfence bushes—shadow
of a porch across the
leaves & whitened buds—
Moving shadows of bush
on white house—
old Indian’s been
rubbing his antique
truck all day to get
the rust rid—now’s
inside working on
dashboard—That
sweet little cottage shack,
Southern style groundlevel porch,
Purple flowers in a rock
Front, little slopey roof,
Broom, doormat, with a
TV in SJ fine—30
With a few details altered, like the cows on Terrace Hill, this remains the feeling
surrounding the Graham House (outside of rush hour) today. The fact that nascent writers,
drifters, and dreamers still room at The Establishment confirms it.
In one respect the feeling has changed. The
year after James S. Jones bought the Lozelle
and Katie Graham House, the following
item appeared in the Morning Tribune:
• Association
The form in which the house exists today would be recognizable to and clearly associated
with the original occupants, Lozelle and Katie Flickinger Graham, as well as to other
occupants who followed during the period of significance in the railroad period. Its
association to the railroad and Railroad District also remains clearly communicated by
location, setting, and feeling.
30. Jack Kerouac, Book of Sketches (New
York: Penguin, 2006).
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J. H. Flickinger display, Horticultural Building, Chicago World’s Fair, 1893
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5.2.5 Railroad Historic District
Setting
Established in 1998, the Railroad Historic District boundaries follow the historic boundaries of
the Southern Pacific rail yard. The district is bounded by railroad right-of-way on the east, from
Johnson Avenue on the north to Orcutt Road on the south, on the northwest generally by Leff
Street, and on the west by Broad Street and the railroad right-of-way. The district includes a
residential and commercial area on the west side of the tracks, and abuts the Old Town Historic
District along its northwest and north boundary. The Southern Pacific (or “Espee”) standard
gauge railroad arrived in San Luis Obispo on May 4th, 1894. By 1901, San Luis Obispo was a
part of the completed railroad line from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and served as the main
layover and maintenance yard for the coastal route. The SP railroad operated in tandem with the
older, narrow gauge railroad, the Pacific Coast Railway, or PCR. The PCR was a regional
railway with a station on South and Higuera - the development of a spur line along South
connected the PCR with the Southern Pacific rail yard. The Railroad District is a part of nine
older subdivisions: the Beebee Phillips Tract recorded in 1874, Fairview Addition recorded in
1887, Haskins Tract recorded in 1887, Ingleside Homestead Tract recorded in 1887, the McBride
Tract recorded in 1887, the Loomis Addition recorded in 1887, Maymont Addition recorded in
1888, Loomis and Osgood Re-subdivision recorded in 1894 and the Imperial Addition recorded
in 1897. The Railroad District has an area of 80.7 acres or 0.126 square miles and 38 designated
historic structures.
Development in the Railroad Historic District corresponded to the development of the Southern
Pacific Railroad yard. Commercial and residential buildings were constructed to accommodate
railway workers, freight and passengers, and employees of Southern Pacific and related
businesses. Surviving historic structures date from 1894 to 1945, corresponding with the peak
activity of the rail yard and the district’s period of significance, and most were constructed from
1894 to 1920. The buildings were laid out in a fairly regular grid near the station,
accommodating the curve of the rail line and the diagonal path of Santa Barbara. South of
Upham the lots are much larger to accommodate the railroad structures.
Site Features and Characteristics
Common site features/characteristics
include:
A.Commercial buildings located at
back of sidewalk with zero street
setbacks
B.Front building facades oriented
parallel to street
C.Finish floors at grade
D.Recessed front entries oriented
toward the street
Channel Commercial Company, 1880
Santa Barbara Avenue, West Elevation
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Architectural Character
The predominant architectural style within the Railroad Historic District is Railroad Vernacular.
Railroad Vernacular is characterized by simplicity of form and detailing, with wood, brick or
plaster siding, and is a style favored by railroad construction for its easy construction. As a
practical vernacular style it also incorporates other elements of other architectural styles
including Classical Revival and Mission Revival. Although many of the buildings within the
district were not constructed by the railroad, their use of Railroad Vernacular styles design
reflects the unifying focus of the district. The buildings in the Railroad District are a mix of
simple, yet elegant houses and practical, industrial-oriented commercial buildings, which create a
distinctive neighborhood. The architectural character and important historical elements are
described in the Railroad District Plan. The Plan includes design guidelines that illustrate
architecturally compatible design treatments for new development.
Predominant architectural details include:
A. One- and two-story buildings
predominate
B. Gable and some hip roof types of low to
medium pitch, occasionally with
parapets
C. Predominantly painted wood siding,
with some masonry or smooth plaster
wall siding
D. Traditional fenestration, such as double-
hung, wood sash windows, and fixed
divided light windows
E. Rectilinear massing, with equal or lesser
volume on second floor
F. Simple detailing often along the roof
line including brackets
1901 Santa Barbara, East Elevation
Tribune Republic Building, east elevation
1263 Santa Barbara Avenue
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Individually Contributing Elements in the Railroad District
Not all designated historic resources in the Railroad Historic District were built during the
District’s period of significance, 1894-1945. These buildings were constructed outside of the
period of significance, generally do not exhibit the signature architectural elements described
above, but do contribute to the historic character of San Luis Obispo in their own right based on
age, architectural style or historical association. By virtue of their significance, these resources
also merit preservation.
For example, the Tribune Republic Building, built in 1873, is believed to be the earliest
surviving wood commercial building in San Luis Obispo and has been placed on the City’s
Master List and the National Register of Historic Places for its association with the City’s first
newspaper.
Non-Contributing Elements in the Railroad District
Non -contributing buildings are those that both do not meet the criteria outlined above and have
not achieved historical significance. Most of the post—1950 contemporary buildings in the
district fall into this latter category.
Non-contributing architectural styles,
materials or site features include:
A. Building height, form, scale or
massing which contrasts markedly
with the district’s prevailing 1 and 2-
story buildings
B. Metal, contemporary stucco or other
contemporary siding, including “faux”
architectural details or features that
contrast markedly with traditional
railroad vernacular forms, details and
materials
C. Asymmetrical arrangement of doors or
windows
D. Non-recessed or offset street entries to buildings
Residential
Although the majority of the Railroad District is commercial, there is a small residential area
within it which runs along Church Street and Santa Barbara Avenue from Osos to Upham
Streets. This area was home to many railroad employees and their families.
Modern addition to 1880 Santa Barbara,
West Elevation
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Site features and characteristics- Residential:
A. Residential buildings with modest street
setbacks of 10 feet
B. Coach barn (garage) recessed into rear
yard
C. Front building facades oriented parallel
to street.
D. Finish floors raised 2-3 above finish
grade
E. Front entries oriented toward street,
with prominent walk, stairs and porch
The houses within the residential district are
modest, which reflects their early working class
occupants. Within the district are two hotels,
the Call/Parkview Hotel at 1703 Santa Barbara and the Park/Reidy Hotel at 1815 Osos which
once served as boarding houses for railroad workers. These vernacular buildings have decorative
elements from several styles including Craftsman Bungalow, Classical Revival and Folk
Victorian.
Architectural features- Residential:
A. One and two story buildings
B. Gable and some hip roof types of low
to medium pitch
C. Painted wood surface material,
occasionally smooth stucco wall
siding
D. Traditional fenestration, such as
double-hung, wood sash windows,
ornamental front doors, wood screen
doors
1034 Church St, South Elevation
1724 Osos, East Elevation
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***
Southern Pacific Railroad Depot, 1011 Railroad Avenue; Park/Reidy Hotel 1815
Osos Street; Southern Pacific Railroad Warehouse,1940 Santa Barbara Avenue; and
house located at 1789 Santa Barbara Avenue.
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City of San Luis Obispo Historic Context: Late 19th Century
Citywide Historic Context Statement
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
42
THEME: LATE 19TH CENTURY RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
Residential properties constructed in the last decades of the 19th century represent San Luis Obispo’s
establishment as a City. When the county was first organized, San Luis Obispo was the only
settlement in it, with a few small adobe buildings clustered around the Mission. By the early 1850s,
the main road running through the San Luis Obispo pueblo ran northeast to southwest, crossing San
Luis Obispo Creek below the Mission, at the end of what is now Dana Street. The pueblo became
part of the earliest neighborhoods during Americanization in the late 19th century. Neighborhoods
from this period are located close to the downtown commercial center, and many have already been
recognized by the City as historic districts.
Although adobe construction was still common, by the 1860s, wood frame construction was
becoming more prevalent. Although San Luis Obispo has a collection of high style residences
constructed in the late 19th century, most wood frame residences in San Luis Obispo during this
period were being designed within the vernacular vocabulary. The Mission Orchard Tract, which was
laid out in 1888 on land that originally belonged to the mission, is an example of a late 19th century
neighborhood largely developed with more modest housing, including cottages and Folk Victorian
examples. This period also saw the construction of prominent residences erected in architectural styles
representative of the period. Captain W. G. Dana erected the first frame building in the county on
Snyder House, 1406 Morro Street, 1885.
Photo 2013; source City of San Luis Obispo.
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City of San Luis Obispo Historic Context: Late 19th Century
Citywide Historic Context Statement
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
43
Monterey Street from material brought from Chile. Captain John Wilson soon after erected a two-
story frame building on the lot where the public library now stands.
Railroad workers settled in San Luis Obispo and became the impetus for new residential development
in the city in the late 1880s. Although many workers opted to live in downtown San Luis Obispo,
development in general shifted towards the eastern and southern boundaries of the city and focused
on tracts adjacent to the Southern Pacific right-of-way. The Loomis, McBride, and Homestead tracts,
developed in 1887, were especially popular with railroad workers due to their proximity to the
Southern Pacific rail yard and service facilities.38
As railroad activity expanded toward the end of the 19th century, the needs of the growing employee
population sparked a demand for increased worker housing. The neighborhoods immediately adjacent
to the railroad station were developed with relatively modest single-family residences to accommodate
the growing influx of workers.39 A popular area was the Imperial Addition tract, which was developed
in 1891 and was conveniently located near the Southern Pacific roundhouse. The neighborhood
eventually became known as “Little Italy” due to the high concentration of Italian railroad workers
who resided there.
In order to continue railroad expansion during this period, many prominent land-holders along the
railroad route granted rights-of-way; this included the Dana family in San Luis Obispo. Establishing a
right-of-way for the railroad significantly impacted the landscape of San Luis Obispo. While many new
subdivisions were developed, existing subdivisions were drastically altered and streets and other access
routes were destroyed to create at-grade crossings. The existing configuration of the city was essentially
cut in half, and several subdivisions had to be re-platted, including the Central Addition and the
Loomis tract.
38 Hemalata Dandekar and Adrianna Jordan, “The Railroads and San Luis Obispo’s Urban Form,” Focus, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Volume
XVII, 2010, 48.
39 Robert Pavlik, “A Railroad Runs through It: The San Luis Obispo Southern Pacific Railroad Historic District,” n.d. Website:
http://www.heritageshared.org/docs/essays/roadscholars/roadscholars.html. Accessed March 2013.
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Citywide Historic Context Statement
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
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1. Phillips Addition (1874)
2. Deleissigues Tract (1876)
3. Buena Vista Tract (1885)
4. Loomis Tract (1887)
5. Deleissigues Subdivision (1887)
6. McBride Tract (1887)
7. Homestead Tract (1887)
8. Hathway Addition (1887)
9. Buena Vista Addition (1887)
10. Fairview Addition (1887)
11. Deleissigues Addition (Block 5)
(1887)
12. Central Addition (1888)
13. Maymont Addition (1889)
14. Schwartz Addition (1889)
15. South Side Addition (1891)
16. Imperial Addition (1891)
Map showing land annexations along the proposed right-of-way for the Southern Pacific Railroad, 1874-
1891.
Source: Adrianna Jordan, The Historical Influence of the Railroads on Urban Development and Future Economic
Potential in San Luis Obispo, online version, p. 35.
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City of San Luis Obispo Historic Context: Late 19th Century
Citywide Historic Context Statement
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
45
Most residences constructed in San Luis Obispo during this period were examples of vernacular
hipped roof cottages or Neo-classical cottages. There are also examples of more elaborate, high style
residences, although they are not the most prevalent type during this period.
In 1875, San Luis Obispo attorney De Guy Cooper wrote:
We can boast of some very fine private residences. Heretofore, the style of architecture has
been of a rather primitive nature; but latterly there has been a marked improvement in this
particular area, and buildings erected within the past year have been of a better nature, and of
a more permanent character.40
Residents who were building more opulent homes during this period often chose styles that were
popular in other parts of the country, including Queen Anne, Eastlake, and Italianate styles. These
large two- and three-story homes often had elaborate scrollwork and other decorative details. They
were constructed beginning in the 1870s, and these styles remained popular until the turn of the 20th
century. Local architects associated with this period include William Evans, Hilamon Spencer Laird,
W.C. Phillips, and Alfred Walker.41
40 De Guy Cooper, “Resources of San Luis Obispo County,” reprinted in A Vast Pictorial Domain: San Luis Obispo County in the 1870s,
1993, 17. Quoted in Robert C. Pavlik, “Historical Architectural Survey Report for the Cuesta Grade Project,” California Department of
Transportation, October 1994.
41 The vernacular nature of most residential development during this period indicates that most homes were designed without the use of an
architect. The architect identified in this section is based on information available in existing surveys; additional research should be conducted
to identify other architects from this period.
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City of San Luis Obispo Historic Context: Late 19th Century
Citywide Historic Context Statement
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
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Late 19th Century Residential Development: Associated Property
Types, Integrity Considerations & Eligibility Standards
Property Type
Single-family Residence; Historic District
A residential property from this period may be significant:
As an increasingly rare example of late-19th century residential development -- Criterion A/1/B.2
(Event).
For its association with a significant person in San Luis Obispo’s early history -- Criterion B/2/B.1
(Person).
As a rare remaining example of adobe residential construction -- Criterion C/3/A.1,A.2
(Design/Construction).
As a good or rare example of a particular architectural style associated with the period -- Criterion
C/3/A.1,A.2 (Design/Construction).
A collection of residences from this period that are linked geographically may be eligible as a
historic district.
Integrity Considerations
In order to be eligible for listing at the federal, state, or local levels, a property must retain sufficient
integrity to convey its historic significance under the Late 19th Century Residential Development
theme.
Residential properties from this period eligible under Criteria A/1/B.2 (Event) should retain
integrity of location, design, feeling, and association.
A residential property significant under Criterion B/2/B.1 (Person) should retain integrity of design,
feeling, and association, at a minimum, in order to convey the historic association with a significant
person.
Residential properties significant under Criterion C/3/A.1,A.2 (Design/Construction) should retain
integrity of location, materials, workmanship, and feeling. Any remaining examples of adobe
construction from this period with fair integrity would likely be eligible. In general, the adobe walls
should remain largely intact and the residence should retain the majority of the character-defining
features associated with an adobe structure of its age. Alterations that are consistent with upgrades
typically seen in early adobe structures, including later additions constructed with wood framing
and replacement windows within original window openings, are acceptable. It is expected that the
setting will have been compromised by later development. Wood frame buildings from this period
should retain good integrity, although minor alterations are acceptable.
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Eligibility Standards
To be eligible, a property must:
date from the period of significance;
display most of the character-defining features; and
retain the essential aspects of integrity.
Extant Examples
Hays-Latimer Adobe, 642 Monterey Street, 1860.
Left image: Date unknown; source Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Special Collections.
Right image: 2013; source City of San Luis Obispo.
Dallidet Adobe, 1185 Pacific Avenue, 1860.
Left image: Date unknown; source San Luis Obispo County Historical Society.
Right image: 2013; source City of San Luis Obispo.
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Citywide Historic Context Statement
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Railroad Cottage, 1127 George Street, 1900.
Photo 2013; source Historic Resources Group.
Baker House, 1636 Morro Street, 1900.
Photo 2013; source City of San Luis Obispo.
Righetti House, 1314 Palm Street, 1877.
Photo 2013; source City of San Luis Obispo. Anderson House, 532 Dana Street, 1898.
Photo 2013; source City of San Luis Obispo.
Mancilla/Freitas Adobe, 868 Chorro Street, c. 1800-
1850. Photo of rehabilitation 2014; source City of San Luis
Obispo.
Rosa Butron Adobe, 466 Dana Street, 1860.
Photo 2013; source City of San Luis Obispo.
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Zoning, or remove the property from historic listing if the structure on the property no longer
meets eligibility criteria for listing, following the process for listing set forth herein.
14.01.070. Evaluation Criteria for Historic Resource Listing
When determining if a property should be designated as a listed Historic or Cultural Resource,
the CHC and City Council shall consider this ordinance and State Historic Preservation Office
(“SHPO”) standards. In order to be eligible for designation, the resource shall exhibit a high
level of historic integrity, be at least fifty (50) years old (less than 50 if it can be demonstrated
that enough time has passed to understand its historical importance) and satisfy at least one of the
following criteria:
A. Architectural Criteria: Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region, or
method of construction, or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values.
(1)Style: Describes the form of a building, such as size, structural shape and details
within that form (e.g. arrangement of windows and doors, ornamentation, etc.). Building
style will be evaluated as a measure of:
a. The relative purity of a traditional style;
b. Rarity of existence at any time in the locale; and/or current rarity although the
structure reflects a once popular style;
c. Traditional, vernacular and/or eclectic influences that represent a particular social
milieu and period of the community; and/or the uniqueness of hybrid styles and how
these styles are put together.
(2)Design: Describes the architectural concept of a structure and the quality of artistic
merit and craftsmanship of the individual parts. Reflects how well a particular style or
combination of styles are expressed through compatibility and detailing of elements.
Also, suggests degree to which the designer (e.g., carpenter-builder) accurately
interpreted and conveyed the style(s). Building design will be evaluated as a measure of:
a. Notable attractiveness with aesthetic appeal because of its artistic merit, details and
craftsmanship (even if not necessarily unique);
b. An expression of interesting details and eclecticism among carpenter-builders,
although the craftsmanship and artistic quality may not be superior.
(3)Architect: Describes the professional (an individual or firm) directly responsible for
the building design and plans of the structure. The architect will be evaluated as a
reference to:
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a. A notable architect (e.g., Wright, Morgan), including architects who made
significant contributions to the state or region, or an architect whose work influenced
development of the city, state or nation.
b. An architect who, in terms of craftsmanship, made significant contributions to San
Luis Obispo (e.g., Abrahams who, according to local sources, designed the house at
810 Osos - Frank Avila's father's home - built between 1927 – 30).
B. Historic Criteria
(1) History – Person: Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California,
or national history. Historic person will be evaluated as a measure of the degree to which
a person or group was:
a. Significant to the community as a public leader (e.g., mayor, congress member,
etc.) or for his or her fame and outstanding recognition - locally, regionally, or
nationally.
b. Significant to the community as a public servant or person who made early, unique,
or outstanding contributions to the community, important local affairs or institutions
(e.g., council members, educators, medical professionals, clergymen, railroad
officials).
(2) History – Event: Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to
the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the
United States. Historic event will be evaluated as a measure of:
(i) A landmark, famous, or first-of-its-kind event for the city - regardless of whether
the impact of the event spread beyond the city.
(ii) A relatively unique, important or interesting contribution to the city (e.g., the Ah
Louis Store as the center for Chinese-American cultural activities in early San Luis
Obispo history).
(3) History-Context: Associated with and also a prime illustration of predominant
patterns of political, social, economic, cultural, medical, educational, governmental,
military, industrial, or religious history. Historic context will be evaluated as a measure
of the degree to which it reflects:
a. Early, first, or major patterns of local history, regardless of whether the historic
effects go beyond the city level, that are intimately connected with the building (e.g.,
County Museum).
b. Secondary patterns of local history, but closely associated with the building (e.g.,
Park Hotel).
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Item #2
PUBLIC HEARING ITEM
2.Review of a request to designate the single-family dwelling at 1789 Santa
Barbara Avenue (The Lozelle and Katie Flickinger Graham House)as a Master
List Resource and include the property in the City’s Inventory of Historic
Resources (this action is not subject to environmental review);Project
Address:1789 Santa Barbara;Case #:HIST-0144-2020;Zone:R-3-H;
Michael Hughes,owner/applicant.
Staff Presentation By:
Walter Oetzell, Assistant Planner
________________________________________________________________
Recommendation:
Forward a recommendation to the City Council regarding the property’s eligibility
for the Master List of Historic Resources.
HIST-0144-2020 (1789 Santa Barbara)
Designation of the The Lozelle and Katie Flickinger Graham House as
a Master List Resource in on the City's Inventory of Historic Resources
Master List Resource
Designation which may be applied to the most unique and
important historic properties and resources in terms of
•Age,
•Architectural or historical significance,
•Rarity, or
•Association with important persons or events in the City’s past
(Historic Preservation Ordinance §14.01.020)
Evaluation
Italianate Architecture
(Historical Context Statement)
▪Symmetrical façade
▪Low pitched hipped or flat roof
▪Widely overhanging eaves with large decorative brackets
▪Tall narrow windows, commonly arched or curved above
▪Elaborated window crowns
▪One-story entry porch, often supported by square posts with beveled corners
▪Centrally-placed square tower or cupola
The Italianate style began in England as part of the Picturesque
Movement. As used in the United States, this style generally
followed the informal model of the simple Italian farmhouse, but
was adapted into an indigenous style. This style did not enjoy
the widespread popularity of other Victorian -era styles, and
relatively few Italianate buildings were built.
Listing Criteria (§14.01.070)
Architectural criteria
(1)Style: relative purity of a traditional style; rarity; traditional, vernacular, eclectic
influence; uniqueness of hybrid styles
(2)Design:architectural concept; artistic merit and craftsmanship; accurate
interpretation and expression of style; compatibility and detailing of elements
(3)Architect:notable architect (significant contributions; influential work)
Historic Criteria
(1)Person: significantly important to history (public leader; fame, outstanding
recognition; early, unique, or outstanding contributions)
(2)Event: significant, unique, important, interesting, contribution to broad patterns of
history or cultural heritage; landmark, famous, first -of-kind event
(3)Context: prime illustration of predominant patterns of history
Integrity:
Authenticity of physical identity; original site, foundation; retention, survival of design,
setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, association, characteristics of period of
significance; recognizable, conveying reasons for historical significance
Listing Criteria (§14.01.070)
Architectural criteria
Style and Design: embodies the irregular, the cottage, and the
Italianate forms, and no other Italianate structure in San Luis Obispo has a greater degree
of integrity (Papp pg. 12); local rarity of examples of Italianate style
Integrity:
Original site and location; retention of original footprint and decorative features (few
changes: porch and stair railing, small back window, attic vent, replacement entrance
transom glass, sensitive window sash and pane replacement, removal of structural
elements from the rear porch, removed roof cresting, sometime after 1907; Papp pg. 21)
HIST-0144-2020 (1789 Santa Barbara)
Designation of the The Lozelle and Katie Flickinger Graham House as
a Master List Resource in on the City's Inventory of Historic Resources