HomeMy WebLinkAboutSLO What April 2016
HISTORY of SAN LUIS OBISPO
Mission 1900s
History of San Luis Obispo
Joseph A. Carotenuti
City Historian/Archivist
The beginning of the twentieth century found the small city of San Luis Obispo (population 3021) relishing in the
signs of PROGRESS. Engulfed in a state that had nearly doubled its population in the last 20 years to nearly
1,500,000, residents wondered at the woes and wonders of the Union as we ll as the rest of the world. There were
many who well-remembered the agonies of the Civil War and the unprecedented assassination of a
President…followed by a second in 1881.
Now, who would have thought a group of cities would form a baseball association now known as the American
League? Or that German Kaiser Wilhelm would commence a military build-up that would engulf Europe in a war to
end all wars (until the next one)?
Locally, the residents were greeted with rain, a blessing for farmers and ranchers b ut not conducive to celebrating
the arrival of the new baby to a new century. A highlight seems to have been a special service held at the Mission
(see image). Regardless the splendor as well as the squalor ever present in human affairs, the City almost ha d a
railroad connection to the world and a nascent icon of culture and refinement – a library – as twin pillars to
support the civic psyche that would define the community through the next 100 years and - within the next
decade – even change the form of governance.
The city fathers were led by William A. Shipsey whose title was president of the Board of Trustees (and whose
home is a City treasure) and issues large and small occupied the municipal agenda but the major conversations
were centered on bringing the railroad north from Santa Barbara to connect in the City. Any progress (or rumors
thereof) was reported and as 1900 aged into 1901, the sound of the train’s whistle could almost be heard
(certainly in the imagination) faintly from the south. The reali ties and fantasies of a local connection provided
plenty of copy for the newspapers and conversation in the multiple saloons. The original 55 mile “gap” roughly
from Ellwood (north of Santa Barbara) to Serf (near Lompac) will take five years to complete.
When the local version of the “golden spike” was finally placed and the first trains rumbled into and through the
community into the vastness of America, who would have thought a few months later that no less a personage
than the President of the United States would pay a brief visit. It must have seemed as if he wanted to personally
congratulate the city on its latest achievement. In reality, he stopped for an hour and was more concerned about
his wife’s health than another stop along a journey that would t ake him from the White House and – some four
months later – to his grave.
McKinley was the first Chief Executive to enjoy the new (literally finished shortly before his arrival) into and
through San Luis Obispo. It certainly was a civic crown jewel and celebrated with more relish than the advent of
the new century!
Contact: jacarotenuti@gmail.com
4/2016