HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 2 - Update on revised eligibility determinations for Historic Structures in San Luis RanchCity of San Luis Obispo, Community Development, 919 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401-3218, 805.781.7170, slocity.org
CHC meeting of September 24, 2018
TO: Cultural Heritage Committee
FROM: Brian Leveille, Senior Planner
SUBJECT: (Business Item #2) – Summary of Additional Research and Revised
Eligibility Determinations for historic resources in the San Luis Ranch Specific Plan
Discussion: The attached mitigation report provides updates on revised eligibility
determinations and recommended treatments for buildings to be relocated to the
Agricultural Heritage Center in the San Luis Ranch Specific Plan. Additional
research has found that the Spectator Barn/Viewing Stand is individually significant
under NRHP and CRHP criterion as a rare and surviving example of a racetrack
viewing grandstand. As a result, the proposed treatment plan includes salvaging
exterior siding material from residence #2 (to be demolished) which was previously
removed from the grandstand so that it can be reused for restoration to its period of
significance on the grandstand.
The Mitigation Report also provides preliminary recommendations for treatment of
the structures prior to temporary relocation (Grandstand and Residence #1 - see
page 51). In advance of site grading, the next steps are to move the structures
adjacent to the future location of the Agricultural Heritage Center.
No action is necessary by the CHC. This is an update on progress and status of
mitigation measure implementation. Once a detailed plan is developed for the
Agricultural Heritage Center, the CHC will review detailed plans for final treatment
and placement of the relocated structures (grandstand and Residence #1) and the
Main Barn which will be reconstructed.
Attached:
Mitigation Report for Architectural Resources on the San Luis Ranch, San Luis
Obispo, San Luis Obispo County, California. Paula Juelke Carr, M.A., SWCA
Environmental Consultants. September, 2018
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Mitigation Report for Architectural
Resources on the San Luis Ranch,
San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo
County, California
SEPTEMBER 2018
PREPARED FOR
Coastal Community Builders
PREPARED BY
SWCA Environmental Consultants
1422 Monterey Avenue, Suite B-C200
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
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MITIGATION REPORT FOR
ARCHITECTURAL RESOURCES ON THE
SAN LUIS RANCH,
SAN LUIS OBISPO, SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA
Prepared for
Coastal Community Builders
330 James Way, Suite 270
Pismo Beach, CA 93449
Prepared by
Paula Juelke Carr, M.A.
SWCA Environmental Consultants
1422 Monterey Street, Suite C200
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
(805) 543-7095
www.swca.com
SWCA Project No. 44844
September 2018
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SUMMARY OF ADDITIONAL RESEARCH AND
REVISED ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATIONS
In November 2016, nine historic-period architectural resources on the San Luis Ranch property were
evaluated in connection with the San Luis Ranch Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report (San Luis
Ranch EIR) (Bailey et al. 2016; Rincon Consultants 2017). These nine resources included three
residences, a main barn, a “spectators’ barn/viewing stand,” a warehouse, and three sheds. The 2016
evaluation made the following eligibility determinations:
• The property and the structures on the property . . . do not demonstrate sufficient
historical significance in national, state, or local agricultural development or as a
unique property type to warrant listing in the NRHP [National Register of Historic
Places].
• The San Luis Ranch Complex is eligible for listing in the CRHR [California Register
of Historical Resources] under Criterion 1 for its association with the early
agricultural development of San Luis Obispo. The San Luis Ranch property has
retained the complex of ranch buildings and cultivated fields for over a century. The
property is also representative of an early 20th century farm with its associated
buildings, agricultural fields and ancillary structures. The buildings reflect the
distinctive characteristics of the early 20th century vernacular agricultural
architecture, making the San Luis Ranch Complex also eligible for listing in the
CRHR under Criterion 3.
• The project site is not currently within the City limit. Therefore, neither the project
site nor any structures on the site are currently listed as a Historic or Cultural
Resource according to the above criteria. However, the San Luis Ranch property
exemplifies an important period of local history, being established as a family farm
and developing into a valuable local agribusiness industry. The property is
representative of early 20th century agricultural and industrial development. The San
Luis Ranch Complex, as well as cultivated fields, has existed on the property for over
a century. The San Luis Ranch Complex is a rare remaining and intact example of a
farm complex representing the early agricultural history of San Luis Obispo.
Therefore, it is eligible for designation . . . as a City of San Luis Obispo historic
resource under Criterion A.1 (Style).
This San Luis Ranch Mitigation Report has been prepared in partial fulfillment of Mitigation Measure
CR-1(b), as the “detailed historic narrative report” and the “compilation of historic research” specified in
Section 4.5 (Cultural Resources) of the 2017 San Luis Ranch EIR. Additional information located during
the preparation of the mitigation report has made it necessary to revise some of the 2016 eligibility
determinations.
Results of Additional Research
The Spectators’ Barn/Viewing Stand is the modified but sufficiently intact viewing stand (grandstand)
constructed in 1887 as part of the fairgrounds for the first fair held by the State of California District
Agricultural Association No. 16 (Sixteenth District Agricultural Association) in San Luis Obispo County.
As a late nineteenth century grandstand, it is a rare surviving example of a scarce building type in
California. Locally, it is the oldest surviving building from the earliest days of the county fairs held under
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the auspices of the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association and the only surviving building that links
the first District Fair to the present-day Mid-State Fair.
Further, hundreds of board feet of the original drop siding removed from the southwest elevation of the
grandstand (when it was relocated on the parcel in 1900) were used to clad Residence #2; this original
material can now be reclaimed from the residence and used to substantially restore the exterior of the
viewing stand.
The primary significance of the barn/viewing stand does not lie in its role as a contributing resource to the
San Luis Ranch Complex, but as an individually eligible resource connected to San Luis Obispo County’s
Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Fair, horse-racing events at the fair, and the subsequent
historic development of the San Luis Obispo County Fair, including the Mid-State Fair.
Similarly, the primary significance of Residence #1 does not lie in its association with the Dalidio family,
who acquired the property in 1920, but with the Wood family (William Otterbein Wood and his eldest
son, William Forrest Wood, and his family). The Wood family acquired the former fairground property in
1900 and built and determined the layout of all of the essential core buildings and structures of the San
Luis Ranch Complex:
• Residence #1 (built and occupied by the Wood family);
• Residence #2 (built by the Wood family using lumber removed from the grandstand);
• The barn (built by the Wood family); and
• The grandstand (moved and repurposed by William Otterbein Wood as a barn).
This report therefore makes the following revised eligibility determinations.
National Register of Historic Places
The following revisions are made for NRHP eligibility:
• The 1887 grandstand is eligible for the NRHP under Criterion A, at the state level of significance,
for its direct connection with the State of California’s District Agricultural Association fairs,
inaugurated in 1880, and for its direct connection with the incorporation of horse racing in state
fairs. The persistence of state revenue generated by horse racing, which started with fairs, was
expanded in the 1930s through the advent of pari-mutuel betting and continues today in the
revenue stream supporting—among other entities—state universities, such as the California
Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly).
• The 1887 grandstand is also eligible for the NRHP under Criterion C, at the state level of
significance, as a rare surviving example of a building type (horse-racing track grandstand)
constructed on a fairground under the auspices of the State of California’s system of District
Agricultural Associations.
California Register of Historical Resources
The following revisions are made for CRHR eligibility:
• The 1887 grandstand appears to meet the eligibility criteria for listing in the CRHR under
Criterion 1, at the state level of significance, for its direct connection with the State of
California’s District Agricultural Association fairs, inaugurated in 1885, and for its direct
connection with the incorporation of horse racing in state fairs. The persistence of state revenue
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generated by horse racing, which started with fairs, was expanded in the 1930s through the advent
of pari-mutuel betting and continues today in the revenue stream supporting state universities,
such as Cal Poly.
• The 1887 grandstand also appears to meet the eligibility criteria for listing in the CRHR under
Criterion 3, at the state level of significance, as a rare surviving example of a building type
(horse-racing track grandstand) constructed on a fairground under the auspices of the State of
California’s system of District Agricultural Associations.
San Luis Obispo Local Designation
The following revisions are proposed for San Luis Obispo Local Designation eligibility:
• The 1887 grandstand appears eligible as a Master List property under:
o Criterion A(1)(b): as a rare architectural building style
o Criterion B(2)(a): for its association with a first-of-its-kind event that made a significant
contribution to a broad pattern of local history
o Criterion B(3)(a): for its association with an early pattern of local history
o Criterion C(2): as a structure that has retained enough of its historic character and
appearance to be recognizable as a historic resource and to convey the reasons for its
significance
• The Wood Family Residence (Residence #1) appears individually eligible as a Contributing
Resource under:
o Criterion A(1)(a): for the relative purity of its Craftsman style
o Criterion A(2)(a): for its notable attractiveness and craftsmanship, especially in a
farmstead setting
o Criterion C(1)-C(3): for its integrity of location, materials, design, workmanship, setting,
feeling, and association
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CONTENTS
Summary of Additional Research and Revised Eligibility Determinations............................................ i
Results of Additional Research ............................................................................................................... i
National Register of Historic Places ................................................................................................ ii
California Register of Historical Resources..................................................................................... ii
San Luis Obispo Local Designation................................................................................................ iii
Project Description ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Methodology ................................................................................................................................................ 1
Historic Context .......................................................................................................................................... 1
Rancho Laguna ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Rancho Laguna Partitioning ............................................................................................................ 3
Early Agricultural Operations Onsite ..................................................................................................... 5
Lucian Garcia Terra (c.1838–1889) ................................................................................................. 5
Domingo Machado (c. 1850–1915) ................................................................................................. 6
From Farm to Fair .................................................................................................................................. 8
Horse Racing an Early Fixture of California District Agricultural Association Fairs ..................... 8
San Luis Obispo Organizes ............................................................................................................ 12
Early San Luis Obispo Horse-Racing Tracks ................................................................................ 12
From District Fair to Mid-State Fair .................................................................................................... 14
1880: The First Iteration – California State District Agricultural Association No. 7 .................... 14
1887: California State District Agricultural Association No. 16 ................................................... 15
The Machado Tract ........................................................................................................................ 19
1887: First Annual Fair .................................................................................................................. 20
1888: The Pavilion ......................................................................................................................... 24
1888: Second Annual Fair ............................................................................................................. 24
1890: Fourth Annual Fair............................................................................................................... 28
1891: Fifth Annual Fair ................................................................................................................. 29
1892: Sixth Annual Fair ................................................................................................................. 32
1893: Seventh Annual Fair ............................................................................................................ 32
1894: Eighth Annual Fair............................................................................................................... 32
1895 ............................................................................................................................................... 34
1896 ............................................................................................................................................... 36
1897 ............................................................................................................................................... 36
1898 ............................................................................................................................................... 38
1899: Ninth Fair ............................................................................................................................. 38
1900: The Last Horse Racing on the San Luis Obispo Fair Grounds ............................................ 40
William Otterbein “Parson” Wood (1826–1905) ........................................................................... 40
1901: The Sixteenth District Fair in the Twentieth Century .......................................................... 41
1946: The College of Fairs and the Sixteenth District Fair ........................................................... 43
Racetrack Grandstands as an Architectural Resource Type ................................................................. 44
San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand ................................. 45
Revised Eligibility Determinations .......................................................................................................... 48
Results of Additional Research ................................................................................................................ 49
National Register of Historic Places ..................................................................................................... 49
California Register of Historical Resources ......................................................................................... 50
San Luis Obispo Local Designation ..................................................................................................... 50
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Revised Eligibility Determinations and Treatment Plan ....................................................................... 51
Treatment Plan ..................................................................................................................................... 51
Residence #1 .................................................................................................................................. 51
Residence #2 .................................................................................................................................. 52
Residence #3 .................................................................................................................................. 52
Warehouse ..................................................................................................................................... 52
Barn ................................................................................................................................................ 52
Racetrack Grandstand .................................................................................................................... 52
Sheds .............................................................................................................................................. 52
Structure at North Corner of Property............................................................................................ 53
Preparer’s Qualifications ......................................................................................................................... 54
References Cited ........................................................................................................................................ 55
Newspapers (individual citations provided in text) .............................................................................. 56
Maps ..................................................................................................................................................... 56
Figures
Figure 1. Detail of the plat of the roughly 4,000-acre Laguna Rancho, surveyed by Brice M. Henry
in 1858 ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Figure 2. Map of the subdivisions of Ranchos Cañada de los Osos and La Laguna, San Luis Obispo
County, surveyed by James Stratton, May 1868 ........................................................................ 4
Figure 3. Parson’s 1920 map, Survey No. 119A, is based on Harris’s unrecorded 1875 survey map,
Resubdivision of Rancho Laguna. ............................................................................................. 4
Figure 4. Detail of 1880 federal census of the population, showing the entries for the Terra and
Machado families, recorded June 1880...................................................................................... 5
Figure 5. Lucian Garcia Terra’s headstone, Old Mission Cemetery, San Luis Obispo. ............................... 5
Figure 6. Schedule B, Productions of Agriculture, of the 1880 Federal Census, showing the farm
produce on what is now the San Luis Ranch property. .............................................................. 7
Figure 7. Machado family vault, Old Mission Cemetery, San Luis Obispo. ................................................ 8
Figure 8. The Board of Directors of the California State Fair responds to criticism about the
emphasis on horse racing ........................................................................................................... 9
Figure 9. Entrance gate to the Sixth District Los Angeles Agricultural Park (now Exposition Park) ........ 10
Figure 10. The Sixth District Los Angeles Agricultural Park racetrack, 1895 ........................................... 11
Figure 11. Sulky racing was a prominent part of county fair horse racing meets nationwide .................... 11
Figure 12. Sulky race, c. 1910s–20s (Source: Windsor Historical Society, 1954.2.4.406). ....................... 12
Figure 13. Locations of two mid-1870s San Luis Obispo horse-racing tracks. .......................................... 13
Figure 14. Santa Barbara’s Nineteenth District Agricultural Association advertised its own
Agricultural Park horse races in 1886, 1887, and 1890 ........................................................... 14
Figure 15. Location of Charles Woods’s 0.5-mile racetrack, superimposed on Block 9 of Map of the
Central Addition to the City of San Luis Obispo, surveyed by E. Y. Buchanan in June
1887. ........................................................................................................................................ 17
Figure 16. San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Pavilion, built at the
corner of Monterey and Toro in 1888 ...................................................................................... 24
Figure 17. The Pacific Coast Steamship Company advertised excursion rates to the 1888 San Luis
District Fair from both Los Angeles and San Francisco .......................................................... 26
Figure 18. Excerpts from Annual Report of the Sixteenth District Board of Directors for 1890. .............. 28
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Figure 19. Excerpts from Annual Report of the Sixteenth District Board of Directors for 1890. .............. 29
Figure 20. Advertisement for upcoming Sixteenth District Agricultural Fair ............................................ 32
Figure 21. Receipts and expenditures for the 1894 Sixteenth District Fair ................................................ 34
Figure 22. The Assembly votes to end State appropriations for District Fairs ........................................... 35
Figure 23. Advertisement for the 1899 fair and races. Smith Shaw is named as president of the
Sixteenth Agricultural Association .......................................................................................... 39
Figure 24. The Sixteenth District Fair moves to Paso Robles .................................................................... 41
Figure 25. The 1920 Paso Robles District Fair and Almond Show promised a “well-regulated fair,”
including exhibits of new farm equipment .............................................................................. 42
Figure 26. In 1981, the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Fair was branded the “Mid-State
Fair” for the first time .............................................................................................................. 44
Figure 27. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera facing west. .......................... 46
Figure 28. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera facing southwest. ................. 46
Figure 29. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera facing southeast. .................. 47
Figure 30. Residence #2, shown here, incorporates some of the drop-siding removed from the
grandstand when it was moved to its present location and converted into a barn. .................. 48
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PROJECT DESCRIPTION
SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) has prepared this San Luis Ranch Mitigation Report in
partial fulfillment of Mitigation Measure CR-1(b), as the “detailed historic narrative report” and the
“compilation of historic research” specified in Section 4.5 (Cultural Resources), of the San Luis Ranch
Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report (San Luis Ranch EIR) (Rincon Consultants 2017). Additional
information located during the preparation of the mitigation report has made it advisable to revise some of
the 2016 eligibility determinations.
METHODOLOGY
This historic narrative report is based on a combination of earlier reports and recent additional research.
SWCA Senior Architectural Historian Paula Juelke Carr, M.A., carried out the fieldwork, evaluation, and
report preparation for this study. The historical development of the farmstead property has previously
been addressed in two separate studies by Bertrando and Bertrando (1999a, 1999b) in connection with an
earlier proposed redevelopment project (San Luis Obispo Marketplace Annexation: The Dalidio
Property). Preliminary research, therefore, included a review of these earlier studies and desktop research
in standard secondary sources for the San Luis Obispo area. SWCA made field visits to the San Luis
Ranch property at intervals during the report preparation.
Site-specific research made extensive use of contemporaneous newspaper articles appearing not only in
local San Luis Obispo newspapers (e.g., San Luis Obispo Daily Tribune, Semi-Weekly Breeze), available
on microfilm at the San Luis Obispo City-County Library, but also in other newspapers, such as the Santa
Maria Times, Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco
Call, and Sacramento Record-Union—all accessed through the online commercial newspaper service,
Newspapers.com. The state’s leading agricultural journal, the Pacific Rural Press, available online
through the California Digital Newspaper Collection on the State of California Library website, also
reported from time to time on the activities of the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association. These
sources permitted a very detailed view of the individuals involved in the development of the fair, site
selection, construction, and the layout of the various built-environment components on what is now the
San Luis Ranch property. Archival collections in the California History Section of the California State
Library in Sacramento helped explain the origins of the State of California District Agricultural
Association No. 16 (Sixteenth District Agricultural Association). The Western Fairs Collection in the
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) Library’s Special Collections
provided important information on the funding of the State’s District fairs and confirmed the continuity of
the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association even during the decades when no District-sponsored fairs
were held. Federal census records accessed through Ancestry.com yielded valuable information about the
farming operations of Lucian Garcia Terra and Domingo Machado, whose adjoining farms made up the
tract of land occupied by the fairgrounds. Contemporaneous newspapers also provided details about the
Wood family, whose purchase of the fairgrounds led to the development of the San Luis Ranch Complex
buildings and structures, including the repurposing of the grandstand into a barn.
HISTORIC CONTEXT
The San Luis Ranch parcel is one of the few remaining agricultural parcels within the immediate sphere
of influence of San Luis Obispo that retains historic significance as a farmstead property. In addition to
the historic-period farmhouses, barn, and sheds present onsite is a rare building type—a nineteenth-
century racetrack grandstand—modified for use as a barn but still recognizable. In 1900, this grandstand
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was moved a short distance from its original location alongside a racetrack that operated nearby in the
1880s and 1890s.
This historic context provides the background for understanding the significance of the grandstand in
terms of both the development of the County Fair and the inclusion of horse racing, and also provides
context for understanding the individual significance of the historic-period buildings and structures that
make up the San Luis Ranch Complex.
Rancho Laguna
When the project area was first encountered by European explorers, the landscape was a broad, natural
wetland complex extending westward down the Los Osos Valley toward the Morro Bay/Baywood
estuary, and south along San Luis Obispo Creek toward Avila Bay. At contact, the area was documented
as being frequented by grizzly bears in great numbers and was therefore not a favorable location for
permanent Native American settlement. The wetland’s abundant resources—including tule reeds, fish,
turtles, birds, and a host of other plants and animals—were nonetheless important to Native American
villages established relatively nearby on more suitable ground, and the project area would have been
regularly visited.
With missionization, the area came under the jurisdiction of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, but—
except for upland slopes that permitting some livestock grazing—the use of the project area is not likely
to have changed remarkably; the local Chumash population would have continued to be the most frequent
visitors, hunting, fishing, and gathering useful plant materials. Even as a rancho property, the same
combination of limited grazing, hunting, fishing, and gathering would have prevailed. Following the
acquisition of Alta California by the United States in 1848, at the conclusion of the Mexican–American
War, properties formerly granted under Mexican law were reviewed for validation of title. The 1858 plat
map (Figure 1) that eventually confirmed the Laguna Rancho as church property under the administration
of Joseph Sadoc Alemany, Archbishop of San Francisco, was concerned primarily with the boundaries of
the lozenge-shaped property, identified as Lot No. 37 of Township 31 South, Range 12 East, Mount
Diablo Meridian. At irregular intervals around the border, the surveyor annotated the locations of the
posts and stone mounds erected as survey monuments and also labeled creek crossings, dry ravines, and
wagon “roads” to specific destinations. Three notations are of interest to the San Luis Ranch property:
one marks the southeast end of the lagoon, another shows the alignment of an “old stone fence,” and the
other labels a “valley.”
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Figure 1. Detail of the plat of the roughly 4,000-acre Laguna Rancho,
surveyed by Brice M. Henry in 1858 (Source:
http://www.slocgs.org/carpenter/LandGrants.html). Rancho Laguna
Partitioning
James Stratton’s 1868 survey established the base lines for mapping of the region. Lots 64 and 65 (Figure
2) were further subdivided by R. R. Harris in 1875. The San Luis Ranch property comprised lots K, L, M,
and N of the 1875 subdivision. These lots form the basis of the current property (Figure 3).
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Figure 2. Map of the subdivisions of Ranchos Cañada de los Osos and La
Laguna, San Luis Obispo County, surveyed by James Stratton, May 1868
(Source: San Luis Obispo County Maps Book A, p. 83).
Figure 3. Parson’s 1920 map, Survey No. 119A, is based on Harris’s
unrecorded 1875 survey map, Resubdivision of Rancho Laguna.
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Early Agricultural Operations Onsite
By 1880, two landowners, Lucian Garcia Terra and Domingo Machado, were residing on and farming the
tracts of land that make up the San Luis Ranch acreage. Both operated small general farms, pursuing a
mixture of grain and bean farming, with limited butter making, a potato patch, apple orchard, and
vineyard, a few hogs and chickens, and some wood cutting to round out the seasons of farm production.
This land use was consistent with other early farm activities near the Laguna in the latter third of the
nineteenth century.
Lucian Garcia Terra (c.1838–1889)
As recorded by the federal census taker in June 1880, Leucianis (Lucian) Garcia Terra and his brother
Manuel Garcia Terra were neighbors of Domingo Machado on adjoining farms (Figure 4). Lucian (age
40), who owned his farm property, was married to 40-year-old Carolina A. Terra. Both husband and wife
had been born in the Azores. Their four children (all of whom had been born in California) were Mary
(age 6), Manuel (5), Eda M (3), and Adelaida (2). Lucian is listed as being unable to read or write. His
older brother, Manuel Terra (age 49), also born in the Azores, lived separately in his own household.
Unlike his brother, Manuel did not own but was renting for a share of the produce. Both Lucian and
Manuel are listed as “sick” on the day of the enumerator’s visit. Luciano Garcia Terra died in San Luis
Obispo on March 8, 1899 at the age of 61 and was buried in the Old Mission Cemetery on Higuera Street
(Figure 5), not far from his former farm property.
Figure 4. Detail of 1880 federal census of the population, showing
the entries for the Terra and Machado families, recorded June 1880.
Figure 5. Lucian Garcia Terra’s headstone, Old Mission Cemetery,
San Luis Obispo.
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On the same day that census enumerator J. D. Fowler (a fellow farmer and rancher from the Willow
Creek area) recorded information about the individual Terra and Machado family members, he also
recorded details about their crops (Figure 6):
Lucian Garcia Terra tilled 25 acres, which yielded 300 bushels of dry beans. He also planted 1 acre of
Irish potatoes, with a yield of 20 bushels. Cutting 10 cords of wood yielded $50. His farm was valued at
$1,200, with an additional $75 worth of implements and $40 worth of livestock. Included in the livestock
were one milch cow, one hog, and 24 chickens that had produced a total of 250 eggs in 1879. The total
value of production for the preceding year was $225.
His brother Manuel Terra is listed as having his own crops, but because he did not own the land and was
working for a share of the profits, it is likely that he was working for Lucian. Manuel was listed as tilling
30 acres, but he also had 10 acres with 110 bearing apple trees that had yielded 100 bushels in 1879,
valued at $600. Another 8 acres of grapes had yielded 450 pounds of fruit. The farm was valued at
$1,200, with farm production for 1879 totaling $622. His only livestock was a flock of 12 chickens.
Domingo Machado (c. 1850–1915)
A 1917 county history notes that Domingo Machado “was born in the Azores islands, came to the United
States and located in San Luis Obispo County in 1873, where, the following year, he was united in
marriage to Rosa Lima. He engaged in farming soon after at Laguna and later in Los Osos valley, and
followed that vocation until his death, August 9, 1915” (Morrison and Haydon 2002, p. 574).
The June 17, 1880, census recorded the following information about the Machado farming operations:
Domingo Machado grew 10 acres of barley, yielding 350 bushels, and raised 200 pounds of dry beans.
Wood cutting yielded six cords of wood with a total value of $24. His livestock included one cow, two
hogs, and six chickens, who had produced a total of 12 eggs the previous year. The cow is not listed as a
milch cow but was evidently used for cream; 50 pounds of butter was made on the farm in 1879.
Machado was active in the Portuguese fraternal organization Uniao Portugueza do Estado da California
(U.P.E.C.) and was elected treasurer of the Morro Council of the group in September 1909 (Los Angeles
Herald, September 11, 1902, p. 10). A brief notice of Machado’s death, published in the Santa Maria
Times on August 14, 1915, p. 5, described him as “a pioneer of San Luis Obispo.” The family vault is an
impressive one in the Old Mission Cemetery (Figure 7).
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Figure 6. Schedule B, Productions of Agriculture, of the 1880 Federal Census, showing the farm
produce on what is now the San Luis Ranch property.
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Figure 7. Machado family vault, Old Mission Cemetery, San Luis Obispo.
From Farm to Fair
Once the frenzied dash for California’s gold fields began to subside in the late 1850s, disenchanted
miners and others began to look about them and recognize the economic potential of the state’s arable
lands. From San Francisco southward, California’s late-nineteenth-century economy was founded not on
gold mining, but on agriculture, stock raising, and dairying. The decades of the 1870s and much of the
1880s were marked by bonanza yields of grains, as California’s virgin soils were plowed and planted for
the first time. The scale of the acreage planted required either enormous amounts of labor, or else
investment in new types of agricultural machinery, including gang plows, headers, and combines that
revolutionized farming (Olmstead and Rhode 2017, p. 2). In the 1890s, orchards also became
economically important, relying on railroads for faster transportation of produce to distant markets.
Boosterism and hyperbole found their place quite naturally in California’s agricultural sections. The
impetus to capitalize on marketing the products found expression in regional agricultural fairs, with
exhibitions of each area’s finest products.
In San Luis Obispo County, wheat and barley growing, fruit and vegetable cultivation, investments in
pedigreed animals to improve stock raising, and seasonal dairying (almost exclusively for butter and
cheese) were all in place by the 1870s. The mid-1880s saw the transformation of the Terra and Machado
families’ general farm property into the fairgrounds for the county’s Sixteenth District Agricultural
Association. This transition came about in part because of San Luis Obispo’s recognition in the state as an
agricultural county, with prize-winning butter, vegetables, cereals, and horseflesh.
Horse Racing an Early Fixture of California District Agricultural
Association Fairs
The California State Agricultural Society was incorporated as early as 1854; their published Transactions
provide important contemporary data on the burgeoning place of agriculture and stock raising in
California. An impressive broadside advertising the 1856 State Agricultural Fair, held in San Jose,
prominently features the Cattle Show and Industrial Arts Exhibition, but also states “An opportunity will
be given for the trial of the Strength of Teams [a plowing match], and of the Speed of Horses, running
against time [rather than against other horses]. Prize money was offered for pacing horses, trotting horses,
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and running horses, as well as draft teams of horses, mules, and oxen” (Cal Poly Special Collections,
Fairs, MS #9, FF141, Folder 5).
The State Fair, later held in Sacramento, was certainly designed to promote the interests of farmers, stock
raisers, and dairy men, but the Board of Directors had to acknowledge that horse racing had become an
important draw for the general public and constituted an important source of revenue for the continued
operation of the fair.
Figure 8. The Board of Directors of the California State Fair responds to
criticism about the emphasis on horse racing (California State Agricultural
Society 1876, p. 27).
This connection between the early agricultural fairs and horse racing remained constant and controversial.
The popularity and income were attractive, but the taint of gambling and other shady activities was a
recurring problem. In Los Angeles, for example, businessmen associated with agricultural and stock-
raising interests organized a syndicate—the Los Angeles Agricultural Society—with the idea of
showcasing local produce and prize animals in a “fairground” setting. In 1872 the syndicate acquired 160
acres of land for an agricultural park (now better known as Exposition Park and the home of the Coliseum
and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History) (Figure 9). They operated the park as a private
venture and had a racetrack built onsite specifically to help provide funding, but the enterprise went
bankrupt in 1880. In 1882 the Society reorganized as the Sixth District Agricultural Association to be able
to reacquire the property and to qualify for state fair allocations. The deed arrangements, land use,
subdivision, and operation of the racetrack (and the associated proliferation of saloons, gambling, and
general seediness of the locale) became the subject of litigation and general controversy for another
decade. A Los Angeles Times editorial (July 13, 1887, p. 4) summed up some of the local opposition to
horse racing:
There is no intrinsic reason why the animal fairs should not be superb annual successes.
This section is rich, enterprising and incomparable productive. It raises the finest
vegetables, the finest fruit and finest horses on the continent. The only trouble with the
fairs has been in the management. The people have lost confidence and acquired disgust.
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The things became so disreputable that attendance was finally left pretty much to the
disreputables. Gamblers, swindlers, thieves and strumpets had it pretty much their own
way at the park.
Mr. Robinson [President of the 6th District Agricultural Association], on behalf of the
directors, informs the Times that it is the intention of the association to stop all this. The
wheel of fortune and the shell-game must go, and order must be maintained. No gambling
privileges will be sold, and if sharpers try to operate they will be cleaned out. The
directors did not feel that they could now suppress that universal adjunct of the track,
pool-selling; but it will be confined to a single point at a distance from the grand-stand.
Let the directors go ahead on their new tack, and they will win. Let them make the fairs
reputable, give us something more than horse-racing, stir up the farmers and make a
display of our fruits, vegetables and other productions that will be worthy of us, and this
intelligent community will appreciate and back up their efforts
Figure 9. Entrance gate to the Sixth District Los Angeles Agricultural Park
(now Exposition Park) (Source: Los Angeles Public Library Photograph
Collection (https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/how-agricultural-park-
became-exposition-park).
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Figure 10. The Sixth District Los Angeles Agricultural Park racetrack, 1895
(Source: Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection,
USC Libraries, available at: https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/how-
agricultural-park-became-exposition-park).
Figure 11. Sulky racing was a prominent part of county fair horse racing
meets nationwide (Source: Windsor [Connecticut] Historical Society,
2015.1.125).
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Figure 12. Sulky race, c. 1910s–20s (Source: Windsor Historical Society,
1954.2.4.406).
San Luis Obispo Organizes
When San Luis Obispo businessmen established a local Agricultural Society on March 25, 1875 (Angel
1883:207), the directors had to state their specific intent in their constitution and bylaws. The purpose of
the San Luis Obispo Agricultural Society, they wrote, was “the fostering, encouraging, promoting, and
aiding in developing agriculture, horticulture, domestic manufactures, mechanics, household economy,
rural practice and taste, and general domestic industry, stock-raising in the various branches thereof, and
the improvement of the races [i.e., breeds] of all useful domestic animals, and for the trial of the speed of
horses [emphasis added], and for the dissemination of useful information on these subjects.”
From the beginning, then, horse racing was to be incorporated in the Agricultural Society’s proceedings.
The construction of local horse-racing tracks in the mid-1870s was a good indication of the growing
interest in speed trials on the part of local horse breeders.
Early San Luis Obispo Horse-Racing Tracks
Local San Luis Obispo newspapers provide good documentation of two racetracks constructed in 1874
and 1875, before the advent of the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association. Figure 13, below, shows
the location of “G. Leff’s Farm” as well as Harford’s racetrack.
Leff Farm
The Race Course – In our last issue we made brief mention of the race course being
constructed by Mr. G. Leff, about two miles south of town. On Wednesday morning last,
we visited the track on which a number of hands were at work, superintended by Mr. Leff.
The locality is a most picturesque one; a beautiful green plain dotted here and there with
broad spreading sycamores, surrounded at a distance by majestic mountains, on some of
which dense pine forests may be seen; the place is really attractive. The track forms two
straight and two oval stretches of 220 yards each making the whole length 880 yards, one
half mile. It has been carefully graded and will be ready for the races which take place
to-day, after which, Mr. Leff contemplates adding such improvements as will be
necessary to make it a first-class track. Mr. Leff is a lover, as well as a raiser, of fine
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horses and deserves credit for his enterprise and direction (San Luis Obispo Tribune,
December 5, 1874, p. 3).
Harford Place
New Mile Race Course – Mr. N. A. Cook has had surveyed, and is now putting in good
condition, a mile track on the Harford place, a mile below town [bisected by present-day
Elks Lane]. It is a fine place for the purpose; the ground is perfectly level, and the soil
susceptible of being put into the fastest condition. A windbreak on the northwest side
would add greatly to the comfort of attendants, and make it, in time, the headquarters of
the sportsmen of the county. We hope that Mr. Cook will not stop until all necessary
improvements for the convenience of both man and beast are completed. A good race-
course is a need that has long been felt, and will go far toward inspiring in our people a
disposition to excel in horseflesh. Go ahead with it! (San Luis Obispo Weekly Tribune,
November 13, 1875, p. 1).
Figure 13. Locations of two mid-1870s San Luis Obispo horse-racing tracks.
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From District Fair to Mid-State Fair
1880: The First Iteration – California State District Agricultural
Association No. 7
The earliest local agricultural societies—like those of San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles—were
superseded in April 1880 when state legislators enacted a law providing for the organization of 11
agricultural districts aggregating individual counties throughout the state. San Luis Obispo County—
along with Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito Counties—was assigned to Agricultural District No. 7
(California State Agricultural Society 1886, p. 7). In January 1885, “Governor Stoneman appointed
Truman Anderson, of San Luis Obispo County, as a Director of Agricultural District No. 7, for the term
expiring December 1, 1888” (Sacramento Record-Union, January 30, 1885, p. 3).
During these early years, Arroyo Grande took the lead, holding its own Agricultural Fair (which does not
appear to have included a racetrack). As the acknowledged center of activity for the county’s horticultural
and vegetable production, Arroyo Grande was a logical host. So extraordinarily fertile was the Arroyo
Grande Valley, yielding abundant crops of superior quality and astonishing size, that it was a regular gold
medal winner at the annual State Fair in Sacramento.
San Luis Obispo, Sept. 27. – The Arroyo Grande Agricultural Association on Saturday
decided to hold the fair and cattle show on the 15th and 16th of October. Exhibitors are
invited from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties (Los Angeles Times,
September 28, 1886, p. 1; Los Angeles Herald, September 28, 1886, p. 1).
The invitation extended to Santa Barbara County is especially interesting, inasmuch as Santa Barbara had
its own Agricultural Park and racetrack in 1886 (Figure 14).
Figure 14. Santa Barbara’s Nineteenth District Agricultural Association advertised its own
Agricultural Park horse races in 1886, 1887, and 1890 (Santa Maria Times, November 27, 1886, p.
5; July 2, 1887, p. 3; and August 9, 1890, p. 3).
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1887: California State District Agricultural Association No. 16
In March 1887, the state legislature reorganized the 1880 agricultural districts, removing San Luis Obispo
County from District No. 7 and giving it its own unique designation: California State District Agricultural
Association No. 16—the designation it retains today. In recognition of the new state legislation, the San
Luis Obispo County Board of Trade organized an agricultural association that could legally function as,
and assume the financial benefits of, a District Association. In May 1887 California’s Governor Bartlett
appointed a roster of prominent San Luis Obispo County residents to the Board of Directors for the
Sixteenth District Agricultural Association: P.W. Murphy, J. H. Orcutt, E. W. Steele, A. Towler, A.
Tognazzini, L. M. Warden, J. P. Webster, and George Van Gorden (Sacramento Record-Union, May 10,
1887, p. 3). The Board immediately proposed to hold a fair in the fall (Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1887,
p. 5; and Sacramento Record-Union, same day, p. 8).
Even as the fall fair season was drawing near, however, San Luis Obispo newspaper editors had still been
agitating for better facilities and discussing the relative merits of candidate locations. As reported in the
San Luis Obispo Daily Republic:
District Fair
The following are the dates of the principal interior fairs: Santa Clara Valley
Agricultural Society, August 15th to 20th; Sonoma Society, August 22nd to 27th; Sonoma
and Marin (Petaluma), August 29th to September 3d; Sacramento State Fair, September
12th to 14th; Nevada County, September 21st to October 1st; Stockton, September 27th to
October 1st; Sixth District, Los Angeles, October 4th to 8th.
The date fixed for the San Luis Obispo fair is the first Tuesday after the close of the
Monterey fair, which is on the 11th of October, continuing to the 15th. Our Directors will
see, therefore that they have more than three months in which to prepare, and that if they
choose to exercise a proper energy, they may arouse a public spirit in our people that
will, in a measure, redeem them from the charges of neglect of other public matters. With
the inspiration of honorable energy, we feel confident of a very excellent fair in October
next.
The great question at issue now, is the procuring of fair grounds and race course. There
are several locations available, as at Arroyo Grande, on the Corral de Piedra, on
McCoppin’s or Grant’s land southeast of town [approximately the Vachell Tract and
Suburban Tract, respectively]. Or on Orcutt’s place south of town [Orcutt Road]. The
last named offers but a half mile course, to which some object. The people of Arroyo
Grande from their priority of organization, from having held the first successful fair,
from the fact that their products would be the attraction of any fair, and from their
superior public spirit, feel that the fair should be held in their vicinity and that their
ground should be selected. They certainly have great claims, but the county at large
would undoubtedly select this city as the place of meeting. The question may be said to
settle upon the selection of a mile course southeast of town or the half mile course on
Orcutt’s land. The objection to the first is that it is subject to cold and heavy winds. The
track at Orcutt’s is more sheltered, and moreover, for a country fair a half mile course
has many points of advantage. The cost of purchase and maintenance would be less, and
in the exhibition of animals it would be far more convenient and preferable. In the
exercise of horses or in races, the spectator would have a better view, and but a very
slight difference is noticeable in the time made. We have heard quite a number of
prominent men and experts express favorable opinions of the half mile course (San Luis
Obispo Daily Republic, July 6, 1887).
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Two weeks before the fair opened, the Los Angeles Times (September 25, 1887, p. 4) announced that the
San Luis Obispo County District Agricultural Association fair would run for 4 days, October 11–14,
1887, with entries for the races closing on October 9. As an inducement, $3,000 would be offered in
prizes, and “One of the features of fair week will be a polo contest between English and Mexican
riders….” The polo match was not as improbable as it sounds. One of the leading “sports” of San Luis
Obispo at that time was Horace Annesley Vachell, “a young Englishman who became a landed squire,”
with his Tally-Ho property in Arroyo Grande and another on what is now Vachell Lane in San Luis
Obispo. In the “late 1870s and along in 1883” Vachell “introduced polo to the hard riding cowboys of his
Arroyo Grande farm. He became discouraged, however, and returned to England to write a book called
‘Life and Sport on the Pacific Coast,’ which tells about polo pioneering” (Santa Maria Times, July 5,
1938, p. 1). In his book, Vachell notes that “There were no race-meetings in our county till the County
Fairs were organized; but one man would match his horse against another’s, and these matches would
generally take place upon the Pizmo sands, a magnificent race-course fifteen miles long and fifty yards
wide” (Vachell 1901:16).
While the outcome of the polo match does not seem to have been recorded, the 1887 fair was duly held.
This first fair, sponsored by the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association, commenced immediately
after the 1887 Arroyo Grande Fair ended, with some of the same exhibits sent up to be shown again in
San Luis Obispo (Los Angeles Herald, October 8, 1887, p. 1).
In a 1916 retrospective article in the San Luis Obispo Semi-Weekly Tribune (July 14, 1916, p. 1), it was
reported that the horse racing associated with the fair took place “at the old Chas. Woods racetrack in the
block now bounded by Marsh and Higuera Streets and Essex and Johnson streets, where Chas. Woods
had a half mile track. At that time E.W. Steele of Corral de Piedra rancho [the newly elected president of
the District 16 Agricultural Association] offered prizes for the first [District] fair ever held in the
county…” (San Luis Obispo Semi-Weekly Tribune, July 14, 1916, p. 1) (Figure 15).
It is important to state, however, that the 1916 newspaper article is at odds with numerous contemporary
newspaper articles published not only in the local San Luis Obispo press but also in Los Angeles, San
Francisco, and Sacramento newspapers, attesting to the many steps taken in the process of securing a
permanent racetrack for San Luis Obispo. The half-mile track owned by Charles Woods is far more likely
to have been one of several locations being considered by the Sixteenth District Agricultural
Association’s board of directors in mid-1887. Another serious contender—along with those (cited above)
in Arroyo Grande, on Rancho Corral de Piedra, on “Grant’s land,” or “Orcutt’s place”—was a tract of
land south of town owned by Frank McCoppin.
McCoppin, an Irish immigrant, had first made a name for himself in San Francisco. In the 1860s he
served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before being elected mayor. In the 1880s, while a
resident of San Luis Obispo County, he was elected to serve two terms in the State Senate. Locally, he
was a stock-breeder, served on the board of the Horticultural Commission in 1883–1884, and owned more
than 400 acres of farmland to the northwest of town, as well as another tract formerly owned by the
Vachell brothers (near present-day Vachell Lane). The latter property, located adjacent to the Pacific
Coast Railway line, was the “McCoppin tract” under consideration for a racetrack. Local newspapers
assiduously covered the on-again, off-again acquisition of the property:
McCoppin Tract Proposed—Fair Association--Grounds for the Race Track Selected
The Society to Purchase Fifty-eight Acres of the McCoppin Tract—Running and Trotting
Purses, Etc.
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Figure 15. Location of Charles Woods’s 0.5-mile racetrack, superimposed on Block 9 of Map of the
Central Addition to the City of San Luis Obispo, surveyed by E. Y. Buchanan in June 1887. The
city streetcar line ran along one side of the block (San Luis Obispo County Maps Book A, p. 55).
The Board of Directors of District No. 16 met in the Board of Trade rooms Saturday, at
10 a.m. August 13th. Present, E. W. Steele, Chairman; P. W. Murphy, L. M. Warden, J. H.
Orcutt, George Van Gordon, Coffee Rice and J. V. Webster. Minutes of previous
meetings were read and approved.
The Committee on Grounds made a partial report, and further statements and
recommendations in reference to suitable grounds were postponed till the arrival of Mr.
Brown, whose opinion was desired in the matter. Mr. Brown materialized and E. W.
Steele made a proposition agreeing to erect fifteen box stalls at the Donahue track and
place them at the disposal of the Association during the fair, and agreeing to keep the
track well watered and in good condition.
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After a lengthy discussion it was decided to resolve the meeting into a committee if the
whole to inspect the grounds of Mr. McCoppin. The Directors reassembled at 2 p.m. A
motion was carried that E. W. Steele, L. M. Warden, J. H. Orcutt, George Van Gordon
and Coffee Rice be appointed a committee with full power to act to employ a surveyor to
locate a track, to obtain the value of the land and the costs of the erection thereon of such
buildings as are necessary, and make such other improvements as may be deemed
expedient for a temporary or permanent location.
It was ordered that should investigation satisfy the committee that suitable arrangements
could not be made at Mr. McCoppin’s, that said committee be authorized and empowered
to make such other arrangements as may be found proper and practicable….
The reading of the minutes was dispensed with and the Directors repaired to the site of
the proposed location of the tract, accompanied by Mr. McCoppin, who offered to sell the
Agricultural association any amount of land at the rate of $150 an acre. If sixty acres are
purchased he will subscribe for $1,000 worth of stock, and will take one-half of balance
in cash and the other half in one year from date of said purchase, with interest at 7 per
cent. On the deferred payment. He further agreed to give the right of way, according to
the Forman survey (Foreman 1876, Harford & Chapman’s Subdivision), along the south
side of lots 17 and 26, and will pay half the expense incurred in sinking an artesian well,
the well to be located on the ridge and the flowing water to be divided.
This committee recommended the purchase of fifty-eight acres, providing the amount
necessary can be raised by stock subscription, and if the amount cannot be raised, the
committee were instructed to lease the property for a term of years at an equitable rate if
such an agreement would be acceptable (San Luis Obispo Weekly Tribune, August 19,
1887, p. 3).
Agricultural Park
A number of the Directors of the San Luis Obispo Agricultural Park Association met
yesterday at the Board of Trade rooms. There were present L. M. Warden, Truman
Andrews, Ernest Graves and E. B. Morriss. L. M. Warden was chosen temporary
Chairman and C.O. Cummings temporary Secretary. The resignation of Dr. Cox [a
Methodist minister] as Secretary was received. A system of by-laws was adopted.
It was decided to purchase fifty-eight acres off Frank McCoppin for a race track and
exhibition ground at the rate of $250 an acre. The contract has been made to construct a
race course and dig and curb a well …. This does not include fencing the course. The
amount subscribed for stock in the Association aggregates $12,800, the principal
subscribers being: P. W. Murphy, $1,000; Frank McCoppin, $1,000; E. W. Steele,
$1,000; Geo. Steele, $500; George Hearst, by George Van Gordon, $500; Goldtree
Bros., $500; A. Blochman & Co., $500; E. H. Crawford, $100, and others.
At a meeting this afternoon it appeared probable that the above purchase would be
rescinded (San Luis Obispo Daily Republic, September 1, 1887, p. 3).
The Directors of the San Luis Obispo Park Association concluded not to purchase the
McCoppin tract, but have bought 100 acres of the Machado tract one and a half miles
south of this city…. The Association will at once commence constructing a race track,
erecting necessary buildings and doing other work… (San Luis Obispo Weekly Tribune,
September 9, 1887, p. 3).
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The Machado Tract
In mid-September, with only a month to spare, the task of preparing the newly acquired Machado Tract
for the District fair got under way. Again, local newspapers covered the progress of the enterprise,
providing several important details about the location, layout, and types of buildings, as well as the
racetrack, under construction.
Work was commenced yesterday on the grading of the race course on the Machado tract,
and also in the building of stables. These determined steps indicate that we are to have a
real and thorough fair at last (San Luis Obispo Daily Republic, September 14, 1887, p.
2).
The movement for a fair and season of racing in October next is now taking practical
shape with a bright promise of success. As previously stated in the Republic the
Agricultural Park Association purchased 94 and seven tenths acres of land of Domingo
Machado situated about two miles west of this city, paying for the same $200 per acre.
Upon this Engineer Buchanan has laid out a mile course, which is now in the course of
construction under the direction of H. M. Warden. Buildings for stables, also grand
stand, fences, etc., will also be at once erected. This course is of convenient location,
lying close to the track of the P.C. Railway which is connected with the street railway on
the same gauge, and therefore passengers by the streetcars can ride to and from the
center of the city to the Park grounds. A good level road also leads to the course thus
affording a pleasant drive. Taking every feature into consideration the selection of this
ground for the park appears very fortunate and the best that could have been made. The
price $200 an acre, is a wonderful advance over what land was held at a year ago (San
Luis Obispo Daily Republic, September 15, 1887, p. 4).
Agricultural Park Course (Note the detailed description of the grandstand)
In company with H. M. Warden Esq. we made a visit to and examination of the race
course made under his supervision for the Agricultural Park Association. The locality is
about one and a half miles west of town, south of the Laguna, comprising a tract of
ninety-five acres lying between the Los Osos road and the Pacific Coat Railway. The
plan of the park is to have an avenue 80 feet wide along the eastern side of the plat
leading from the Los Osos road to opposite the grand stand, then turning to the stand
with an avenue 100 feet wide. The track one mile in circuit in oval form occupies the
western half of the 95 acres, the long axis running northwest and southeast. On the east
side are the grand stand, stables, sheds and grounds for horses and cattle.
The course has been made perfectly level, requiring two slight cuts of three or four feet,
where a small wash of gravel runs across the field, scarcely to be observed in a farm but
noticeable when doing particular work. The track will be a good turf soil, and when in
order must be regarded as fast. The back stretch affords the finest racing ground, being
1500 feet in length, and the home stretch to past the stand 10000 feet, continuing a few
hundred feet straight, and the ends in long regular curves. The grand stand is 36 feet
deep by 60 in length with saloon in the northerly end and ladies parlor in the southerly
and an open space of 20 feet between. Over these the seats will be erected, rising in the
back to give a fine view of the entire course. A hundred yards north of the stand a stable
of thirty-two stalls commences, curving with the track, each stall is 12 by 14 feet in
dimension, with every convenience required for the purpose. In front of the stable runs a
water pipe with numerous hydrants. South of the stand on two sides of a paddock are
sheds and stalls for the exhibition of stock at the fair, the cattle sheds being for the
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accommodation of about 40 head and as many on the opposite side for horses, with
enclosures or pens for sheep, swine, poultry, etc. To these also extends a line of water
pipe, with the necessary hydrants. The water supply is from a large tank having 32 feet
elevation filled from a well by means of a windmill, the source being abundant, the water
good and inexhaustible. The elevation of the tank is such as to send water over the tops of
all the buildings and in any quantity desired.
The plans of Mr. Warden are comprehensive, showing excellent judgment, fine taste and
long-headed calculations for the future. He will plant numerous trees, which in the fertile
soil of the tract will grow rapidly, and in a short time a luxurious grove will adorn the
grounds, affording shade to stock and shelter from the winds. Am opening will also be
made on the side adjoining the railway, so that passengers and freight can be landed at
the park at the cheapest rates. The street cars from the city may run to the course during
the fair or races, or continually if the park is maintained as a suburban resort. The road
leading to the park, as all know, is perfectly level and excellent, affording a pleasant
drive, and, combining every thing, it appears that the selection of the grounds was the
best that could have been done and the fitting up as near perfect as possible.
The tract comprises 95 acres, purchased at a cost of $200 an acre, and the track and
improvements will cost about $4,000 more. A portion of the land it is proposed to
subdivide into villa lots, which would be very desirable, and undoubtedly profitable to the
Association which is now embarrassed with debt, but we would like to see it purchased by
the city and improved as a park for public resort (San Luis Obispo Daily Republic,
September 29, 1887, p. 2).
1887: First Annual Fair
The Sixteenth District Agricultural Association’s “initial effort” was met with glowing reviews from both
local and out-of-town newspapers, which carried articles picked up by the California Associated Press:
District 16 – The Initial Effort of San Luis Obispo County – The First Annual Fair of the
S. L. O. Agricultural Association – A Success – Superb Exhibits, General Co-operation,
and Large Fund of Experience Acquired….
The Exhibit
At the Fair Grounds the opening day found matters well advanced. The track was in
excellent condition for a new one, the grand stand was up and ready for use, although
like the judge’s stand it lacked a roof, and there was adequate provision for the stock
which was entered. The showing was by no means a meagre one and the quality was of
the finest. We will endeavor to make a complete list in our next issue.
It is only about three months ago since, as a part of the San Luis Obispo County
Agricultural Association, the San Luis Park Association was organized. A month ago this
organization purchased 100 acres of land about one and one-fourth miles southwest of
this city, and work was at once commenced to prepare a track for the first Fair. So
rapidly was the work pushed ahead, that a fine mile track has been made, grand stand,
judges stand, stalls, etc., and all necessary arrangements were completed on time,
The Fair commenced last Wednesday and where but a short time before was a field
devoted to grain, was now a scene of activity and excitement. One hundred vehicles,
numerous saddle horses and “citizens on foot” swelled the number present to nearly
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1500. The grand stand was well patronized as were the refreshments, saloons and
various games… (San Luis Obispo Weekly Tribune, October 4, 1887, p. 1).
San Luis Obispo’s First Fair – [Copyright 1887, by the California Associated Press] –
San Luis Obispo, October 12 – The first Fair of the San Luis Obispo Agricultural District
opened here to-day under the most flattering auspices. The pavilion is crowded with a
large assortment of exhibits of the products if the county, and great additions will be
made tomorrow. The fair grounds were thronged with visitors this afternoon, and an
excellent programme of trotting and running races was carried out. The fair will continue
four days (Sacramento Record-Union, October 13, 1887, p. 1).
Sport at San Luis – San Luis Obispo, October 13 — First race to-day, free for horses of
Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo counties with a record not better than
2:40, mile heats, three in five, purse $200. Entries, Maud H., Salinas, Eagle, Nettie.
Eagle won in three straight heats, Maud H. Second money. Time, 2:42½, 2:44¾, and
2:43 [sic].
County stallion trotting stakes, 2:40 class, three in five. Tamboline and O’Donohue
started. Tamboline won the first and second heats, 3:02, 3:04. The third heat O’Donohue
won in 2:52. The fourth heat and race Tamboline won in 2:54.
An exhibition race was trotted by H. J. Albright’s horse, Fred Arnold, with Van Gordon’s
pacer as a running mate. It was the prettiest event of the day. Trotter’s time, 5:37½ (Los
Angeles Herald, October 14, 1887, p. 1).
In addition to the races held on the fairgrounds, the stalls with prize livestock exhibitions were also
popular, with George Van Gordon and E. W. Steele (both on the District board) credited with “superior
exhibits of blooded stock.” On October 14, the day that prizes were to be awarded, Steele’s “fine
imported Holstein Frisian bull, Anna Dutra, died in his stall at the grounds. He was valued at $1000” (San
Francisco Chronicle, October 14, 1887, p. 8). On October 16, 1887, the last day of the fair, the Los
Angeles Times reported (p. 4), “It has been a brilliant success. The stock exhibition and parade this
morning interested a large crowd.”
Unlike the Los Angeles and Sacramento papers, the Pacific Rural Press (November 26, 1887, p. 429) had
either sent its own reporter to the San Luis Obispo Fair or had acquired copious notes from one who did.
The full report provides substantial detail, especially about the variety of fruits, vegetables, and cereals on
exhibit in the temporary pavilion:
The Fairs – San Luis Obispo – 16th District
The inaugural fair of the 16th District Agricultural Association, held at San Luis Obispo
October 12th to 15th, proved one of the most brilliant successes of this singularly
successful fair season.
The land on which the fair-grounds and track are located had been purchased only a
month before, and yet – so wisely and efficiently worked President E.W. Steele and
Directors L. M. Warden, P. W. Murphy, and Geo. Van Gordon – all needful structures
were finished in time for the exhibition.
The display of blooded horses and cattle was extensive, and upheld the reputation for fine
stock which this county has for some years past been winning, and the parades and races
drew to the park throngs of visitors.
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For want of a pavilion, the products of the fields and orchards, domestic manufactures
and works of art, were marshaled in Pioneer Hall, which, though by no means small,
afforded but about half the space desirable. From all parts of the county came admirable
exhibits. That of the Arroyo Grande Agricultural Association occupied nearly all one side
of the hall. Mr. Lazcano brought a superb output of peaches, grapes and apples from the
San Jose valley. M. Gilbert and F. Riley from Morro, and Mr. Elberg of Los Osos,
showed what those sections could do in fine potatoes of enormous size. A. M. Hardie
made a splendid showing of fruit and vegetables from the Cayucos country, and the
Huer-Huero District was well represented by J. V. Webster.
There were peanuts clustered around the roots of plants that had just been pulled from
the rich, light soil, grapes and sorghum and sugar cane, flax, millet, vegetables, and
fruits until one was constrained to ask if there was any production of the world that
would not thrive in San Luis Obispo county.
Captain W. D. Haley of Templeton gave the principal address, which was fitting,
interesting and appreciated buy his audience. A baby-show and a promenade concert
enhanced the enjoyment of the closing day, and the financial outcome matched the other
successes achieved. Every one concerned seems complacent, if indeed not elated, and
there is serious talk of building a pavilion before another year rolls around.
An inspection of the subjoined list of awards will give some notion of the comprehensive
richness of the exposition.
Awards – Horses
Roadsters—Best team, Cleo and Jessie. E. Graves; stallion, Barelas, 4 yrs old or upward,
E. B. Ballard; stallion, Al-Allen, J. H. Orcutt.
Yearlings, Trotters and Thoroughbreds—1st prize, Elect, E. Cerf; 2d, Dude, and 1st filly,
Evelita, Geo. Van Gordon; running yearling, Enterprise, J. Price.
All Purpose—Stallion, Crown Prince, 4 yrs old and over, mare, 2 yrs old, sucking colt, E.
W. Steele; stallion, Chief, 2 yrs old, T. Andrews; Fanny, 3 yrs old and upward, G. Gates.
Geldings—Ned, 3 yrs old and upward, L. M. Warden; 2 yrs old, H. M. Warden.
Mares and Colts—Lady Tiffany, 4 yrs old and upward, and colt by Antevolo, Brown &
Taylor; Stewart mare, 3 yrs old and Altoona colt; mare 1 year-old, 2 mares and 2
sucking colts, E. W. Steele; mare, 2 yrs old and over, sired by Goldborough, imported
from Australia, G. Van Gordon; 4 mares and colts by Gaviota (special), P. W. Murphy;
Stallion, Bayard, 3 yrs old, P. Kelly; stallion, DeLesseps (special), J. Wilkinson.
Carriage Horses—Span, J. Andrews; single carriage horse, J. E. Mosher.
Sweepstakes—Stallion, Altoona and family, G. Steele; stallion, Gaviota with family
(special), and stallion, Gaviota, any kind or age, P. W. Murphy; mare, Lady Tiffany, any
breed or age, Brown & Taylor; gelding, 3 years old or upward, G. Gates; mare,
Princess, with four colts, H. M. Warden; colt, any breed or age, W. H. Taylor.
Cattle
Holsteins—All (10) awards to E. W. Steele.
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Jersey Cow—E. W. Steele.
Hereford—All (5) awards to G. Van Gordon, representing Sen. Hearst.
Devon Bull—G. Van Gordon.
Durham—All (5) awards, H. M. Warden.
Poultry
There was not a large exhibit of poultry, although there are many fine fowls in the
county, and the only award was to Bushnell Hughston for a coop of Langshans.
Farm Products
Grain, Etc.—Sack barley, W. A. Conrad; sack corn, E. A. Atwood; sack flax, sack hops,
collection assorted forage plants, J. V. Webster.
Fruits
Collection apples, 20 varieties correctly named, W. H. Taylor; collection apples, 12
varieties named, J. F. Beckett; collection, not named, E. Attwood; peaches, Lozcano
Bros.; plums, J. Gregory; nectarines, Mrs. E. W. Steele; foreign grapes, W. W. Hays;
wine grapes, J. V. Webster; nuts, McD. R. Venable; oranges, E. Leedham; lemons, A. M.
Hardie; pears, J. H. Orcutt; quinces, H. J. Price; Japanese persimmons, W. H. Findly;
crabapples, J. F. Beckett; blackberries, Mrs. J. V. N. Young; strawberries, G. Jasper;
collection various types of fruits, J. P. Andrews; dried apples, apricots, nectarines and
peaches, Mrs. E. W. Steele.
Garden Products
Largest general display fruits and vegetables, Arroyo Grande Agricultural Association;
Chili Garnet potatoes, Oregon Blue potatoes, Burbank potatoes, M. Gilbert; Peerless
potatoes (40 making 100-lb sack), M. Elberg; sweet potatoes, carrots, onions (different
varieties), cabbage, J. V. N. Young; white beans, O. Root; pink beans, J. G. Stevenson;
watermelons, Mrs. Lowther; black Spanish melons, F. Melton; Hubbard squash, Butman
squash, cocoanut [sic] squash, S. M. Findley; Kershaw squash, J. V. Webster; Crookneck
squash, C. Greib; Yokohama squash, Chili Monarch peas, J. Gregory; six squah, total
weight 1124 lbs, one squash, weight 216 lbs, China winter radish, T. B. Records;
pumpkins, cucumbers, G. O. Taylor; cauliflower, A. B. Hasbrouck; Danvers onions, W.
E. Ahalt; Spanish radish, J. McGlashen; Rutabaga turnips, beets, J. D. Roberts; red
peppers, G. Jasper; peas, J. G. Stevenson; tomatoes, Mrs. Huyck.
Plants and Flowers
Hot-house plants, Mrs. Robbins; cut roses and dahlias, Mrs. R. E. Jack; fuchsias, Miss
Bouldin; lilies, Mrs. Orcutt; leaf plants, Mrs. Bromley; hand bouquet, Mrs. Sinsheimer;
parlor bouquet, Miss Leland; vase bouquet, Mrs. Spencer; ornamental evergreens, Mrs.
Hogan.
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Miscellaneous
Cheese, E. W. Steele; butter, Mr. Wilhoit; hams, bacon and lard, S.L.O. Packing Co.;
pickled olives, D. F. Newsom; raw silk and silk cloth, Mrs. Spurgeon.
Worthy of Special Mention—Three squash, O. Root; one watermelon, 44 lbs, Mrs. R. S.
Brown; cucumbers, R. Farmer; carrots, stock beets and table beets, A. M. Hardie;
variety peppers, J. V. N. Young; tomatoes, G. Jasper; cabbage and cauliflower, Jno.
Edgar; Keashan squash, J. G. Stevenson; one squash, 190 lbs, carrots, R. Farmer;
sunflower, 17 inches in diameter, H. Olmstead; White Elephant potatoes, Jno. Enos;
Charal oak potatoes, E. Leedham; Peerless potatoes, E. Jaspers; rhubarb and celery, G.
Jasper.
1888: The Pavilion
As important as a suitable racetrack was to the fair, it was not the only topic under discussion. Also to be
decided was the acquisition of a large exhibition hall—a pavilion—where the county’s agricultural
products and home goods could be properly displayed. In July 1888, the Sixteenth District Agricultural
Association leased a large San Luis Obispo town lot, owned by the county, at the corner of Monterey and
Toro streets. The twenty-year lease required only a token rental of $1 per year. The terms of the lease
stipulated that a pavilion was to be erected on the lot and that the building “should be used by the
association for no other purposes than for holding fairs and other meetings in the interest of agriculture.”
The pavilion was built for $17,000, with funding from a mixture of loans and private subscriptions (San
Luis Obispo Tribune Semi-Weekly, July 14, 1916, p. 1) (Figure 16).
Figure 16. San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District Agricultural Association
Pavilion, built at the corner of Monterey and Toro in 1888 (Source: The
History Center of San Luis Obispo County).
1888: Second Annual Fair
The “new and spacious pavilion” just completed in downtown San Luis Obispo welcomed fairgoers of
1888 with “magnificent agricultural, mechanical and art exhibits” (San Bernardino Daily Courier,
September 20, 1888, p. 1). The Pacific Rural Press (November 17, 1888, p. 423) also commented, “The
building lately put up for fair purposes at San Luis Obispo, at a cost of about $12,000, is considered by
Hon. J. V. Webster [of the Huer-Huero region] the best-arranged and most commodious pavilion in the
state, outside of San Francisco and Sacramento.”
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Among the exhibits listed for the first time were wool; pampas grass plumes; butter; honey; almonds,
walnuts, and chestnuts; cherries, prunes, currants, and figs; sweet corn, parsnips, green beans, and leeks;
and sugar beets.
Livestock exhibited at the fairgrounds south of town near the racetrack included the following:
Live-Stock—Horses
Thoroughbred—Best stallion, Enterprise, E. Price; best mare, Paloma, Geo. Van
Gordon; 2d do. [ditto], Hit or Miss, E. Price.
Standard—Best stallion, Duke McClelland, W. H. Taylor; 2d do., Altoona, Geo. Steele.
Roadsters—best stallion, Browns’ Monroe S; 2d do., Claremont, G. Van Gordon; 1st
stallion I yr, Anteal, Brown & Taylor; 2d do., Dodger, H. G. Petty; best mare, Helvetia,
A. Tognazzini; 2d do., Gold Dust, J. H. Orcutt; mare, 3 yrs, Daisy M; mare, 2 yrs, Nellie
T.; yearling, female, Carrie, C.R. Callender; 2d do., Percy C., same; sucking colt, P.
Edgar; 1st span matched horses, H. M. Warden; 2d do., J. G. Pennington; 1st single
roadster, Duke, Jr., N. H. Fitzwater; 2d do., Flora D., R. S. Brown; best stallion &
family, Altoona, Geo. Steele.
Draft—Best stallion, 3 yrs, Brutus, G. M. Frink; 2d do., Bayard, P. Kelly; stallion, 2 yrs,
Cognac, C. A. Rice; sucking colt & 1st mare, E. W. Steele; 2d mare & sucking foal, J.
Clausen.
Carriage—Best team, H. M. Warden; 2d do., R. M. Shackleford; single horse, John Scott.
All Purposes—Best stallion, Young America, R. M. Shackelford; 2d do., Donahue;
stallion, 2 yrs, California Chief; mare, 2 yrs, Jennie T.; mare, 1 yr, H. J. Jasperson;
stallion & family, Dante, C. R. Callender.
Saddle Horse—Hillside, H. M. Warden.
Cattle
Holstein bull, cows and herd, and Jersey cow, all to E. W. Steele.
Poultry
Wyandottes—Jos. Welch.
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Figure 17. The Pacific Coast Steamship Company advertised excursion rates to the 1888 San Luis
District Fair from both Los Angeles and San Francisco (Source: Los Angeles Times, September
12, 1888, p. 7; Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 16, 1888, p. 2).
1889: Third Annual Fair
The third annual fair opened on a somber note when one of the jockeys (Edward Collyer of Santa
Rosa, riding Pirate, from Salinas) was seriously injured in a riding accident. The horse left the track
and tried to jump a wire fence, but became entangled and fell on the rider, fracturing his skull. At the
time, he was not expected to live, but a later report was more optimistic about his recovery (Sacramento
Record-Union, September 25, 1889, p. 1).
“The second days’ races here were largely attended and afforded good sport. There were
three trotting and bicycle races (Sacramento Record-Union, September 26, 1889, p. 1).
San Luis Fair – A Good Display at the Pavilion and a Large Attendance – San Luis
Obispo, September 27 – The fair of Agricultural Association No. 16 is highly successful.
The pavilion is crowded with the usual array of vegetables and cereals and a great
variety of fruit, and is jammed with visitors from all parts of the county. The races draw
large crowds, although only local horses participated (San Francisco Chronicle,
September 28, 1889, p. 6).
Ruled Off the Track. San Luis Obispo, October 1st.—At a meeting the Directors of the
Agricultural Park Association yesterday suspended George C. Smith and the black mare
Topsy for six months from trotting on any course under the National Trotting Association
under Rule 43. The reported cause is insubordination at Saturday’s races (Sacramento
Record-Union, October 10, 1889, p. 4).
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After the fair concluded, the Pacific Rural Press published a full account of that year’s San Luis Obispo’s
district fair (October 12, 1889, p. 329), with the following description of the racetrack events and the
livestock exhibits:
We are indebted to the [San Luis Obispo] Tribune for the voluminous reports from which
is condensed the ensuing account of the district fair, held at San Luis Obispo the fourth
week in September.
The evening of the first day of the week for the Third Annual Fair of the Agricultural
Association, No. 16, showed everything at the park in a good state of preparation. Stalls
to the number of 163 were filled with horses, while the 39 cattle-stalls were all engaged.
When the first race was called there was an attendance which has rarely been equaled in
our park. The track was in fine order, the day was delightful. An accident to a young
jockey cast a temporary shadow over the pleasures of the day, but when it was
understood that he will be all right in due time, the clouds dispersed. The program was
an interesting one. The races we have our worth seeing; they are honest and square, and
the winner may be expected to be the speediest horse, barring accident and the usual
chances of the track.
The show of stock at the fair grounds, although small in number, will compare favorably
in quality with the same class of cattle in other portions of the Union.
E. W. Steele makes a first-class exhibit of Holstein and Jersey cattle, comprising cows,
heifers and bulls. The Holstein bull Omaha stands at the head of the herd. Some of the
bulls and cows are imported, the balance, excepting four head of grades, are
thoroughbred. The calves, three in number, and the one and two-year-olds, show out
boldly the many good points required in mile and meat-producing cattle. The Jersey cow
and calf that he exhibits are almost perfect. Mr. Steele also exhibits a pair of excellent
Norman-Percheron mares. The elder one is a true-blooded Duke de Chartres and the
younger is her foal.
Bierer Bros. of Templeton made a splendid exhibit of pure Jersey cattle. The bull, Jumbo,
six years old, that stands at the head of the herd, is large, well formed, with all the good
points requisite, and what is more astonishing, perfectly gentle. Don Pedro, a two-year-
old bull, son of Jumbo, to all appearances is a perfect facsimile of his sire. Ben Harrison,
a bull calf eight months old, is a beauty and very large for that breed, at his age. Of the
cows in the herd, Philadore’s Daughter, seven years old, is a splendid animal. Both her
sire and dam were imported. Cream, a three-year-old cow, shows all the extra good
points of a No. 1 family cow. Baby Bijou, a two-year-old heifer, is perfect in every point.
But the beauty of the herd is Zella, an eight-months-old heifer calf.
J. H. Orcutt showed five head of horses, all solid bays – the stallion Alallen and four of
his colts – fine animals, of good size and form.
Geo. Van Gorden exhibited among other horses, a span of matched sorrel geldings, a
very fine carriage team.
Allbright’s Norman stallion, Pride, was the only draught stallion on the ground.
The sheep interest of the county was represented by one lone sheep and an ordinary sized
fleece of wool.
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In poultry the show consisted of one coop of fowl – a trio of Cochin China breed, and a
few Toulouse geese.
1890: Fourth Annual Fair
In February, Governor Waterman appointed J. P. Andrews to the board of directors of the Sixteenth
District Agricultural Association (Sacramento Record-Union, February 26, 1890, p. 3). At the year’s end,
the board submitted their annual report to the State Board of Agriculture (Figures 18 and 19). The
itemized list of the District’s expenditures, published in the Transactions of the Sixteenth District
Agricultural Association for the Year 1890 (California State Agricultural Society 1891:691–693), sheds
considerable light on the activities necessary for the operation of the fair, including keeping the racetrack
in order, repairing the Pavilion, paying membership dues to the National Trotting Association, as well as
insurance and taxes, and paying the laborers, gatekeepers, ticket sellers, and police who worked at the
fairgrounds during the event.
The report also reveals that, by a very wide margin, the mainstay of the association’s receipts was the
$2,250 it received as its share of the State’s biennial allocations to the agricultural associations. The
Association clearly paid out more in race winners’ purses than it took in from gate receipts—a situation
that did not improve. The entries for “Park rent” in 1889 and “rent of Park” in 1890 indicate that the
Directors must have transferred some or all of the assets of the fairgrounds property (to an entity called
the Agricultural Park Association) and then rented the Park back during the fair season (this has not yet
been verified by a search in county records).
Figure 18. Excerpts from Annual Report of the Sixteenth District Board of Directors for 1890.
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Figure 19. Excerpts from Annual Report of the Sixteenth District Board of
Directors for 1890.
1891: Fifth Annual Fair
Newspaper articles published in advance of the fifth annual fair document that adjustments to the
management of the fairs were under way. In March 1891 the Santa Maria Times (March 14, 1891, p. 4)
printed a letter from E. W. Steele, one of the District directors and a frequent prize winner at the fairs,
announcing his intent to promote the dairying interest by offering special new premiums for high-quality
butter, and by removing his own herds from the competition:
At the coming fair of agricultural district No. 16, to be held on the grounds of the
Agricultural Park Association, in the city of San Luis Obispo sometime in September
next… I will have milk testers and dairy machinery for the purpose of testing the quality
of the milk and making the same into butter from each cow shown upon the grounds and
entered for a premium, to determine the quality of butter each cow will make during the
three or four available days of the fair, and I hereby personally offer the following:
Premiums:
To the cow that makes the most butter on the fair grounds in the three or four fair days,
under test conditions (time to be hereafter determined) of well worked salted butter,
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salted one ounce to the pound of butter, a thoroughbred Holstein bull, two years old or
more.
Second best cow for butter, same conditions, a thoroughbred and registered Holstein bull
six months old or over.
The society will probably offer a cash premium for the best butter herd of cows,
conditions same, to be announced in due time.
I hereby promise not to compete for any of the above premiums or allow my cows to do
the same.
The Directors of the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association also decided not to be a part of the newly
organizing Southern California [Horse-Racing] Circuit of agricultural associations. They did not send a
delegate to the June 1891 meeting in Los Angeles, attended by representatives from Ventura, Orange, San
Bernardino, San Diego, and Los Angeles Counties, as well as by prominent horsemen from southern
California. Without San Luis Obispo participation, the delegates assigned the dates August 25–28 for the
Sixteenth District fair. They also adopted a cut-off date of August 15 for racing entries. “It was also
recommended that the different associations include 2:40, 2:30; 2:25 and free for all trotting classes in
their [speed] programmes; also a pacing class. With the exception of Los Angeles, all these events are to
be open to the horses owned in the southern counties” (Los Angeles Herald, June 28, 1891, p. 5; San
Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 1891, p. 2).
The following month, the Los Angeles Herald (July 28, 1891, p. 6) announced that “San Luis Obispo has
formed a combination with several other northern counties and will not be in the Southern California
circuit this year.” It is likely that the San Luis Obispo District Association objected both to the early fair
schedule assigned to it, and also felt that it would not be able to offer the full slate of races specified by
the Southern California Circuit. It is interesting to note that, when San Luis Obispo finally held its 1891
fair, it was held in September and not in August. Although races were held, the number of entrants was
not large:
San Luis Obispo Fair
San Luis Obispo, Sept. 27.—The annual fair of the sixteenth agricultural district opened
today, with more than the usual display of phenomenal products. The attendance was
large. An address by Prof. Wickson, of the State Horticultural society, was made. The
races were well contested and drew a large crowd. The 2:40 class, trotted between
George Van Gordon’s Elsie, E. W. Steele’s Stella C., and C. Lee’s Sleepy Sam, was won
by Elsie. Stella second; best time 2:31. The second race, 2:45 trot, was unfinished. There
were four entries, each horse taking a heat (Los Angeles Herald, September 24, 1891, p.
5).
The Pacific Rural Press (October 24, 1891, p. 354) again offered its comprehensive coverage of the
livestock and produce exhibited at the fair:
District Agricultural Fairs. Sixteenth District.
The 16th District Agricultural Fair, which was held at San Luis Obispo, opened on Sept.
22 and closed on the 26th. The exhibits in the pavilion were unusually large, and fairly
large at the park. The displays showed to the best possible advantage the products of the
district. The attendance was large, and all appeared to be well satisfied with the results.
The following premiums were awarded:
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Horses
Thoroughbreds—J.M. Price, best stallion 3 yrs old and upward, with four or more colts;
best mare 3 yrs old and upward, Hit or Miss; best sucking colt (White Stocking).
Standard (Registered)—J. P. Doyle, best stallion with 4 or more of his get (Monroe). G.
C. Vachell, 2d best (Acrobat). P.W. Murphy, best mare 3 yrs old or upward (Lulu). G. C.
Vachell, 2d best (Sultan Queen)/
Roadsters—H. M. Warden, best stallion 3 yrs old and upward (Highland). P. O. Connors
[sic], 2d best (Parnell). D. D. Roberts, best stallion 2 yrs old (Smoker). E. W. Steele, best
stallion, 1 yr old (O. N.); best mare 3 yrs old and upward (Stella C.) James Maddock, 2d
best. E. W. Steele, best yearling filly (Blanche L.). N. H. Fitzgerald, 2d best (Alma A). E.
W. Steele, best sucking colt. E. Graves, best span of matched roadsters. H. M. Warden.
2d best.
Draft Horses—J. N. Watson, best stallion 3 yrs old and upward (Black Hawk). Fruit and
Stock Association 2d best (Coleman); best stallion 1 yr old (Alliance). E. W. Steele, best
matched draft team (Jerry and Forsting).
Carriage Horses—E. Graves, best carriage team (Mac and Lew). H. H. Warden, 2d best
(Dixie and Gailon).
Horses for all Purposes—George Van Gordon, best stallion three yrs old or upward (J.
C. S.).
Saddle Horses—George Van Gordon, best horse (Robbery Boy).
Jacks and Jennies—S. C. Records, best jack (Clever).
Cattle
Durhams with Pedigree—Hon. L. M. Warden, best bull 3 yrs old or upwards; best cow 3
yrs old or upwards; 2d best ditto; best heifer over 1 yr and under 3; best calf under 1 yr.
Jerseys with Pedigree—J. H. Orcutt, best bull 2 yrs old; best cow 3 yrs old or over; 2d
best; best heifer over 1 yr and under 3.
Holsteins with Pedigree—E. W. Steele, best bull 3 yrs old or over; best bull 2 yrs old; 2d
best; best bull 1 yr old, best cow 8 yrs old or over; 2d best; best heifer over 1 yr and
under 3; best calf under 1 yr.
Herds of Cattle—H.M. Warden, best Durham herd; E. W. Steele, best Holstein herd; J.
H. Orcutt, best Jersey herd.
Poultry
M.A. Newsome, best display of poultry by one person; R. D. Cruickshank, best White-
faced Black Spanish; best Partridge Cochins; M. A. Newsome, best White Leghorns;
Frank Canon, best Brown Leghorns; M. A. Newsome, best Plymouth Rocks; J. T.
Rodgers, best Houdans; M. A. Newsome, best Wyandottes; Naomi Canon, best Bantams;
N. H. Fitzwater, best turkeys; Clyde Williams, best Pekin ducks; Jo Green, best exhibit
fancy pigeons; M. A. Newsome, largest turkey.
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At the Pavilion in town, among other prize winners, P. H. Dallidet had the “best display of the products of
one vineyard,” and the awards committee recommended that the University of California’s agricultural
experiment station in Paso Robles be given a gold medal.” The West Coast Land Company also was
awarded for the best display of almonds and the best display of dried fruits.
1892: Sixth Annual Fair
Although in 1891 the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association had affiliated itself with the Northern
California Circuit, by 1892 San Luis Obispo was revisiting the possibility of becoming part of what
appears to have been a differently constituted Southern California Circuit. This time, the Sixteenth
District was expected to send delegates, along with Tulare, Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Diego,
Orange, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles Counties (Los Angeles Times, March 26, 1892, p. 2).
1893: Seventh Annual Fair
The San Luis Obispo fair opens September 26th and continues five days (Santa Maria Times, September
2, 1893, p. 3).
Available press coverage on the opening day of the seventh annual fair focuses on the racetrack events,
which included five-eighths of a mile events and a trotting race in the 2:40 class (San Francisco Call,
September 27, 1893, p. 2). The following day, both the San Francisco Call (September 28, 1893, p. 2)
and the San Francisco Chronicle (September 28, 1893, p. 3) summed up the scene at the fairgrounds with
identical reports, stating, “Splendid weather, a fine track, a large attendance and good racing marked the
second day of the fair.” Of special interest is the comment that the “second race was a non-professional
affair,” suggesting that professional drivers were routinely employed in trotting events, just as Edward
Collyer (the professional jockey from Santa Rosa injured at the track in 1889) was evidently employed in
a running race.
1894: Eighth Annual Fair
The San Luis Obispo fair for 1894 opened on September 25 and closed September 29 (Figure 20).
Figure 20. Advertisement for upcoming Sixteenth District Agricultural Fair
(Santa Maria Times, August 11, 1894, p. 3).
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It is unlikely that the eighth annual fair was a joyous occasion, as San Luis Obispo farmers, stock-raisers,
and dairymen were suffering through a severe drought. As reported in the Sacramento Record-Union
(August 29, 1894, p. 4), San Luis Obispo County sent a representative, Charles O. King, to Sacramento to
appear before the State Board of Equalization for tax relief because of widespread crop failures:
In addition to the petitions from residents which he presented the day before, and which
revealed the state of destitution to which the drought and failure of crops had reduced the
farmers, he stated facts that had come under his own notice. He had lived among the
people, he said, for years, and as Civil Engineer, Assessor, and manager of an abstract
bureau, had become thoroughly conversant with qualities of land, property and property
values throughout the county.
Templeton, which is the best section for cereals in the county, had last year in
warehouses 80,000 sacks of grain. This year there are not more than 10,000 sacks, and
in some places farmers did not raise their hay or enough grain for seed. In the county
records this year there are 680 pages of chattel mortgages, a thing never known before.
A letter from the agent of the Southern Pacific at Paso Robles, states that last year there
were 17,000 tons of wheat and 350,000 sacks handled. This year there were 100 sacks.
There was a large number of letters to the same effect. Even on the coast the drought
affected the farms deeply, and in the most improved sections the situation was much the
same. In the vicinity of Creston, in the hill lands, which are regarded as the best for
wheat, not a thrashing machine went in this year, and a farmer states that from 800 acres
of land he managed to cut twenty-seven tons of hay.
All throughout the eastern part of the county the residents have been forced to leave their
farms and go elsewhere to seek employment in order to support their families until the
rains come and they can go to work once more. In the San Miguel district a frost came in
May and totally destroyed the fruit crop. Horses and cattle have no saleable value, and
no money can be borrowed. There were 752 tax sales this spring in the county.
Not surprisingly, the annual report submitted by the Sixteenth District at the end of 1894 (Figure 21)
reflected the county’s economic downturn caused by the drought. Despite advertising “Big Purses, Big
Premiums” (Figure 20), receipts at the Park were greatly reduced: the 1890 fair took in $1,308.50; the
1894 fair garnered only $458.75. Once again, only the state’s allocation of $2,250 allowed the association
to make the promised payouts.
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Figure 21. Receipts and expenditures for the 1894 Sixteenth District Fair
(California State Agricultural Society 1895, p. 286).
1895
On January 1, 1895, James Budd was inaugurated Governor of California and immediately ushered in a
program of fiscal “retrenchment” in the face of what he viewed as legislative extravagance (Figure 22).
Later that month, a new bill proposing a Southern California State Fair was introduced. As proposed, the
fair would be an annual event held at the Agricultural Park in Los Angeles; the directors of the new
district would be drawn chiefly from Los Angeles (the Sixth District Agricultural Association), but also
from San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Inyo, and
other interested counties. The State would not be responsible for funding the prizes and premiums, but the
expectation was that “something near $15,000 can be secured . . . This matter of money will be left for the
general [State] appropriation bill…” (Los Angeles Herald, January 17, 1895, p. 7).
As reported in the Los Angeles Times (January 31, 1895, p. 2), the bill, which further entailed “the
abolition of the existing system of district fairs,” was presented to the Assembly Committee on
Agriculture:
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It was tacitly agreed to report a bill providing for the holding of two or three State fairs
at central points in the State, and to cut off the all State appropriation for the numerous
district fairs. It was agreed, however, that the agricultural districts should remain at
present, but without State appropriations, and that it should be left to the various county
boards of Supervisors to determine whether such district fairs should be given financial
help.
Figure 22. The Assembly votes to end State appropriations for District Fairs
(San Francisco Call, February 15, 1895, p. 2).
The bill immediately became a political football, in which the appropriation for the State Fair in
Sacramento became pivotal. Proponents of the district fairs denounced any attempt to defund them as
selfish, and that it was “a poor policy to take from the farmer his only appropriation . . . If you deny this
money the only direct effect the farmer will feel will be the loss of his fair.” An opponent made the
rejoinder, “Rather than have this curse of district fairs brought on this State…I will vote for no
appropriation at all” (San Francisco Call, February 15, 1895, p. 2). One telling comment came from
Assemblyman Dodge of Alameda County, who “asserted that in fact the fairs were simply in the interest
of the racehorse men and racetrack gamblers” (Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1895, p. 2.
Although the Assembly voted to discontinue funding for the district fairs, the Senate voted 27 to 6 to
retain it, without reductions in the allocations (Los Angeles Times, March 1, 1895, p. 2; Sacramento
Record-Union, March 2, 1895, p. 5). Despite the headline that appeared in the Sacramento Record-Union
on March 6, 1895 (p. 5), “The State and District Fairs Are All Right,” they were not—Governor Budd
vetoed the bill. The Santa Cruz Sentinel (July 1, 1895, p.2) sarcastically observed, even though the
Governor had vetoed the district fair allocations, “he signed a bill allowing an expenditure of $20,000 per
annum for the State Fair, which should be named the Sacramento Fair, because it is of trifling interest
beyond the outer lines of Sacramento County.”
San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District Agricultural Association did not file an annual report for the Year
1895 to the State Board of Agriculture. The Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society
During the Year 1895 (California State Agricultural Society 1896) included reports from the following
districts:
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• District 2 (San Joaquin County): held a successful fair that included horse racing
• District 6 (Los Angeles County): held a successful fair that included horse racing
• District 18 (Alpine, Inyo, and Mono Counties): held a fair; no track events
• District 19 (Santa Barbara County): “No fair was held this year, on account of loss of our Pavilion
by fire, the general depression in all classes of business, and the lack of State appropriation”
• District 31 (Ventura County): held a fair with track events; no Pavilion
No further Transactions were published until 1900.
1896
For the rest of the nineteenth century, district fairs were successful only insofar as they could be funded as
county fairs or by some other means. A San Francisco Call editorial (January 6, 1896, p. 6) summed up
their view of the financial realities:
The district fairs, which until last year received state aid…have been having such
troubles lately as will likely lead to their complete abandonment. State appropriations
are always uncertain quantities, and dependence upon State assistance operates to the
production of a laggard home interest. The only sensible way in which fair associations
can be handled is as private enterprises, preferably as corporations like the San
Francisco and Oakland concerns, in which the small price of shares serves as an
inducement for popular investment and a widely distributed interest in the success of the
enterprise
Governor Budd, having secured funding for the State Fair in Sacramento, was amenable to the concept of
two or three regional fairs rather than numerous district fairs. He believed, however, that the entire system
of agricultural fairs, including the State Fair itself, needed to be reorganized. The Sacramento Record-
Union (February 18, 1896, p. 2) provided an overview of his approach:
The State Fair. Governor Budd’s Ideas of that and District Fairs.
Governor Budd is opposed to making any appropriation for the State Fair as it is
conducted at present. He believes that horseracing can take care of itself, and that
attention should be given to the agricultural, viticultural, and horticultural interests of
the State, and efforts made to foster and encourage them. He believes also that this can
easily be done under proper laws and intimates that a bill reorganizing the whole system
would be favorably considered by him.
1897
In 1897 the whole purpose of district fairs seemed to be undergoing reconsideration. Governor Budd
continued to adhere to his belief that the system required reorganization (San Francisco Call, January 6,
1897, p. 3). Horseracing as a standard feature of fairs was increasingly criticized. As the state’s latest
appropriation bill was debated, fiscal conservatism at times became intertwined with moral outrage on
one hand, and the equally persuasive argument that the expenditures were not only wasteful but pointless.
As reported by the San Francisco Call (February 24, 1897, p.3), Assemblyman Melick of Los Angeles
“thought that at this time, when the people were crying out for actual economy, to appropriate such a
large sum of money for such purposes among the different counties was an extravagance that should be
stopped. District fairs were productive of no good. ‘In Los Angeles County,’ he continued, ‘we know that
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we can raise better products than in any other part of the world, and we don’t need to bring them
together.’”
Stanford Professor of Horticulture Emory E. Smith agreed that the fairs had been derailed by horse
racing:
State and district fairs should be restricted to their original purpose—the stimulation of
local production. Horse racing for money and gambling of all kinds should be absolutely
forbidden. This would remove the crowds of thugs and gamblers which at present are
such a prominent feature of these occasions. The producers of the district and the bona
fide investigators would show an increased interest and would reap the benefit of the
money spent in their behalf.
If the fairs are not a success without horse racing for money and gambling of various
sorts, close them up and appropriate the public funds for some more useful purpose (Los
Angeles Times, April 3, 1897, p. 11).
Governor Budd vetoed appropriations for district fairs again in 1897.
The response to this trending lack of state support for district fairs showed the different values attached to
them. In late April 1897, “representatives of the principal district fair associations met at the office of the
Pacific Coast Trotting Horse Breeders’ Association to arrange a circuit for the summer and fall seasons.
The convention was called at the request of several district associations which had become discouraged at
the failure of the Governor to approve appropriations made by the last Legislature…” (Los Angeles Times,
April 28, 1897, p. 2). The San Francisco Call (May 10, 1897, p. 4) seemed to issue a public challenge:
County Fairs.
Since Governor Budd went to the pains of denying the proposed appropriation for county
fairs in 1897, which was to be paid out of the State treasury according to a long
established annual custom, there has arisen in certain counties a conviction deep and
abiding that an omission of the district fairs this particular year would be in the nature of
a national calamity. It may never before have occurred to them how absolutely
indispensable those institutions are, but the gubernatorial edict against them immediately
made prominent the fact that district fairs are as necessary as the very sir we breathe.
Nothing can deter these certain counties from holding fairs this season. They will hold
them even though they have to defray the expenses out of their own pockets or by county
appropriations. Movements are afoot in several districts throughout the State to this end,
and already they can walk alone. They are likely to be better fairs than have been held in
the same places for many years, in view of the accentuated value which an attempted
abolition of them has caused them to assume. Local pride, reaching clear to the pockets
of the patriots professing it, will have an added effect. People will take more interest in
the quality of the things which they buy themselves.
The county fairs held in California in 1897 will undoubtedly be splendid successes, and
the circumstances that the custom is to be carried on, despite the loss of State
appropriations, argues that the country people have all the time been sincere in their
enjoyment of its advantages, and that they have the right kind of appreciation of it when
they are willing to pursue it on their own hook and at their own expense.
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1898
In August 1898, in opposition to Governor Budd (a Democrat), the Republican Party specifically included
“aid for district fairs” in its party platform for the 1899 gubernatorial election, stating: “We believe that a
judicious appropriation should be made and maintained whereby the State and district fairs shall be
properly aided, and thus awaken a new interest in agricultural, horticultural, and stock-breeding pursuits”
(San Francisco Chronicle, August 25, 1898, p. 5).
One surprising aspect of the defunding of the fairs is the fact that the state’s district agricultural
associations persisted; that is, they retained validity as legal entities recognized by the state government.
In December 1898, Governor Budd appointed several new directors, at their own request, for the board of
directors of Agricultural District No. 18, which included Alpine, Inyo, and Mono Counties. The
Sacramento Record-Union reported (December 11, 1898, p. 4): “When in 1897 no appropriations for
district fairs were made, the appointment of Directors in many districts was allowed to lapse. The
Eighteenth District, however, at a mass meeting called for the purpose, appointed Directors of its own,
and proceeded to hold its fairs, securing by subscription, entries, etc., nearly $2,000. The fair was a
success, hence the petition to the Governor to make appointments which had been allowed to lapse.”
1899: Ninth Fair
In San Luis Obispo, the racing at the Sixteenth District track was drawing to a close. Benjamin
Sinsheimer, former secretary of the local Agricultural Park Association that had owned the racetrack
property since at least 1889, gave an interview to a local paper, explaining the fiscal realities of the track’s
decline.
The Race Track—About to be Converted into a Grain Field—Should be Kept in Form
for the Fair this Fall—One of the Owners Explains
It has been reported to this paper that the San Luis Obispo race track, belonging to the
Parks Association, is being plowed up and made ready for the planting of a crop of
barley. It’s all right that there should be a large acreage of barley sown this year, for
there are going to be fine crops, but the race track should be reserved for the races at the
Agricultural Fair we are going to have this fall. There seems to be little doubt that the
Legislature will revive the agricultural fairs, at the present session, and San Luis Obispo
will want one this fall. The race track will need to be in good form at that time. A well-
known horseman said today: “The track has all been plowed up, but if they were to stop
where they are, we could get the course back down into condition by fair time, although it
would even with our best efforts be slow this year. However, if they go ahead and plant
grain there this year, it could not be placed in condition for races by this fall.
“For two or three years, when there has been no chance for a fair, they have left the
track undisturbed, but now that we are sure to get an appropriation, they want to ruin the
race course” [emphasis added].
Mr. Ben Sinsheimer, who was secretary of the old Park Association, was interviewed at
his story this afternoon. He says there is reason to plow up the track. “You see, the Park
Association does not now exist,” said Mr. Sinsheimer. “Stockholders would not pay up
their assessments, and so those of us who had all the money in it had to take it. The
Association is dead, and the owners of the property now are Messrs. Warden, Murphy,
the two Steeles and myself. The track has been standing there of no use to us or to
anybody, and so it was decided to utilize the ground.”
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“But in what condition will the track be for the races this fall if we get an appropriation
for a fair?” was asked.
“Well, the fair is a very uncertain matter, and if we find that we are to have one, the
grain can be cut for hay, and the track can be gotten into condition, I think. The present
owners would be glad to sell the park, especially to some one who wants to have a fair
there. If we have a fair, the track will be there in condition” (San Luis Semi-Weekly
Breeze, January 20, 1899, p. 2).
San Luis Obispo was able to host two final seasons of races on what is now the San Luis Ranch property.
In July 1899, the Directors of the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association elected new officers and
directors and advertised the races scheduled for the coming event (Pacific Rural Press, July 1, 1899, p. 7;
Santa Maria Times, July 22, 1899, p. 2) (Figure 23).
Figure 23. Advertisement for the 1899 fair and races. Smith Shaw is named
as president of the Sixteenth Agricultural Association (Source: Santa Maria
Times, August 19, 1899, p. 3).
On August 19, 1899, the track was sold at auction “to satisfy a mortgage held against the Park
Association” (Sacramento Daily Union, August 22, 1899, p. 8; San Luis Obispo Weekly-Breeze, August
25, 1899, p. 4). The new owner, former state senator and current judge George Steele of Edna
(headquarters of the Steele family’s Corral de Piedra Ranch), had been on the board of the Park
Association and was one of the principal stockholders. Steele successfully bid $10,000, against one other
bidder. The San Luis Obispo Semi-Weekly Breeze reported that the track would “continue to be used for
racing purposes.”
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1900: The Last Horse Racing on the San Luis Obispo Fair Grounds
George Steele must have quickly sold off the property he had acquired. In January 1900, the San Luis
Obispo Weekly-Breeze (January 2, 1900, p. 1) reported that Smith Shaw, as President of the Sixteenth
Agricultural Association, had “leased from George W. Long the racetrack property, for the County Fair
next fall. The Association agrees to pay $100 for the use of the property, the lease to expire when the
races close.”
The final races on the San Luis Ranch property were held in September 1900. The Santa Maria Times
(August 11, 1900, p. 3) announced that the fair would open on September 26 and continue for 4 days,
with the directors of the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association “sparing no pains to make the fair a
success in every way.”
At the end of the season, the end had come:
Good Bye to the Race Track -- William Wood, Who Recently Purchased the Property,
is Making a Farm of it.
William Wood, who recently purchased the race track property, is busily engaged in
converting the grand stand into a residence. Mr. Wood is not yet decided whether to
destroy the track and make a grain field of it or maintain it as a racing course.
The track will probably be a thing of the past in a short time for Mr. Woods is a farmer
and thinks that more can be made by sowing the race course than in any other way.
The passing of the old track, which has been the scene of many exciting events in the
past, will cause sorrow to many sports and compel them to look elsewhere for a site for a
race track. It is doubtful if as good a place can be found near San Luis Obispo (San Luis
Obispo Semi-Weekly Breeze, November 9, 1900, p. 2).
William Otterbein “Parson” Wood (1826–1905)
William Otterbein Wood was born in Scioto County, Ohio, in 1826. He came to California in 1849, where
he remained until 1852. He moved back east to Illinois in 1852, where he remained until 1868, when he
returned to California. In 1871 he moved to Ventura County, where, in addition to farming, he founded
and was pastor of the first Baptist church established in the county (he was known locally as “Parson”
Wood). In 1891, the San Francisco Call (July 4, 1891, p. 6), quoting the Ventura Free-Press, noted that
Wood was farming 620 acres in Springvale, Ventura County, including 360 acres in barley and 125 acres
in beans. As a prosperous Ventura County farmer, he gradually acquired additional property until, as
reported in the Oxnard Courier in 1903 (May 2, p. 9), he had “2000 acres of land devoted to [sugar]
beets, beans and grain,” along with 300 head of cattle. At his death in 1905, his estate was valued at
$350,000 (Oxnard Courier, September 1, 1905, p. 5).
In 1900, the year he purchased the racetrack property in San Luis Obispo, W. O. Wood was a 73-year-old
widower who was still a farmer and still a Baptist pastor. Given his past success with farming barley and
beans in Ventura County, it was not surprising that he selected the former Machado Tract in San Luis
Obispo, where Florian Garcia Terra and Domingo Machado had successfully produced both these crops
in the 1880s. His eldest son, William Forrest Wood, also a farmer, is likely to have moved to San Luis
Obispo with his family in 1900, to live on the property and conduct the farming operations. They were
also active in the local Baptist church.
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Quoting the San Luis Obispo Telegram, the Oxnard Courier reported in 1909 (October 15, p. 7), that the
Wood family was moving from San Luis Obispo to Glendale, although the “local Wood ranch, near the
race track, will continue to be farmed by Mr. Wood . . . and from time to time the family will be in San
Luis Obispo on business and pleasure.” The article also noted that “Mr. Wood’s extensive interests” were
largely in southern California, including “large tracts of the famous bean lands” in the Oxnard Plain.
Although purely speculation, the Wood family’s strong financial interests in farming and their strong
support of the Baptist church probably combined to end any possibility of continuing horse racing on the
San Luis Ranch property. In this regard, it is interesting that W. F. Wood, on his departure for Glendale,
commented, “I have great faith in San Luis Obispo, and am sorry to be called away at this time when the
outlook for moral and business advancement is so bright.” The Oxnard Courier remarked, “The Baptist
Church will especially miss Mr. and Mrs. Woods, as they have been true pillars of strength to Rev.
Holman B. Turner and his people.”
1901: The Sixteenth District Fair in the Twentieth Century
In March 1901, the state appropriation for the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association fair was
increased from $1,400 to $1,750 (Amador Ledger, March 29, 1901, p. 1), and the San Luis Obispo
Tribune (April 25, 1901, p. 4) began agitating for a new racetrack location:
What About a Fair?
It will soon be time for the holding of the county fair and one of the things to be
considered is the securing of a race track for the races. Some rustling must be done at
once.
Although the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association secured a new location for the 1901 fair in Paso
Robles, there is no indication that horse racing was included either that year or subsequently. Agricultural
and livestock exhibits dominated the press coverage (Figure 24).
Figure 24. The Sixteenth District Fair moves to Paso Robles (Los Angeles
Herald, September 29, 1901, p. 12).
San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District Agricultural Association County Fair, held in Arroyo Grande in the
fall of 1909, received $1,000 in funding from the County Board of Supervisors. The following year, the
association’s directors were reportedly “getting everything in shape for a good exhibit to be held at San
Luis Obispo from October 19 to 22, inclusive. It is expected that the fine agricultural exhibit of Luther
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Burbank, which was shown at Stockton this week, will be seen there” (Pacific Rural Press, October 1,
1910, p. 271).
Paso Robles appears to have hosted several Sixteenth District Agricultural Fairs in the 1910s, as
suggested by the comment, reported in 1920, “Paso Robles has held several successful fairs in years gone
by” (Santa Maria Times, August 30, 1920, p. 4). By 1920, when the program was announced for the
September 15–19 Paso Robles District Fair and Almond Show, there is clear evidence that the fairs were
centered on agricultural, horticultural, livestock, and industrial (i.e., farm equipment such as tractors)
exhibits, but were beginning to also feature “a varied amusement program” that included “about all things
one might expect to find at any well-regulated [emphasis added] fair,” which was a coded way of stating:
No horse-racing or gambling (Santa Maria Times, August 30, 1920, p. 4).
In 1920, Paso Robles again hosted the Sixteenth District Fair (Figure 25).
Figure 25. The 1920 Paso Robles District Fair and Almond Show promised a “well-regulated fair,”
including exhibits of new farm equipment (Santa Maria Times, August 30, 1920, p. 4).
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Documents from the Fairs Collection (Record Group II: Division of Fairs and Expositions) in Cal Poly’s
Special Collections, reveal the absence of state funding for San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District
Agricultural Association from at least 1921 through at least 1943. By 1910, state funding for fairs favored
the Los Angeles Exposition hosted by that county’s Sixth District Agricultural Association, and by 1921
the state appears to have switched to an aggregate appropriation for the “encouragement of County
Agricultural Fairs” (Fairs Collection, Record Group II: Division of Fairs and Expositions, Allotments to
the State District, County, and Citrus Fairs for Capital Outlay, 1937–1954, folder 8). This aggregate
biennial allocation started out at $50,000 in 1921, rose to $100,000 in the 1923 and 1925 funding cycles,
slipped to $70,000 in 1927, then to $60,000 in 1929 and 1931 before ceasing altogether in 1933.
Of the allocated capital funding, San Luis Obispo’s County Farm Bureau Fair received $867.45 in 1923
and $240.75 in 1924. The San Luis Obispo Fair Association—which was a separate entity from the
Sixteenth District Agricultural Association—is documented as paying out $372.00 in premiums (i.e., as
prizes for exhibits) in 1926; receiving $94.50 in state funding and paying out $1137.50 in premiums in
1927; and receiving an allocation of $298.16 in 1928. It appears likely, therefore, that both the 1927 “San
Luis Obispo Fair” at Paso Robles (Santa Cruz Evening News, August 26, 1927, p. 6) and the 1928 “San
Luis Obispo County Fair” held in San Luis Obispo August 23–25 were sponsored by the San Luis Obispo
Fair Association, rather than the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association. Reviewed by the Los
Angeles Times (September 9, 1928, Farm and Orchard Section, p. 12):
. . . the San Luis Obispo County Fair . . . was “old-fashioned” in every sense of the word.
Agriculture was its keynote, commercial and industrial featured playing but a small part
alongside the showing of farm products and the rural side being emphasized in every
detail. It was like old-times, too, the way the farmers swarmed to the exhibit. San Luis
Obispo county is strong in Farm Bureau centers and every locality was represented by
complete and extensive displays of its particular products.
No further allocations to the Fair Association were made between 1929 and 1936, no doubt because of the
Great Depression. Despite receiving no funding from the state, San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District
Agricultural Association (like other district associations) remained on the books. During World War II,
most of the fairs had suspended operations, and the wartime curtailment of pari-mutuel betting at horse
races had eliminated state aid to fairs (Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 30, 1943, p. 8). Late in the war, the
San Bernardino County Sun (November 26, 1944, p. 2) reported that the State Division of Fairs and
Expositions did not expect a “large-scale revival of county and district fairs at least until 1946.”
Reorganization of District fairs was tackled in the post-war era.
1946: The College of Fairs and the Sixteenth District Fair
In the lead-up to the revival of the Sixteenth District’s fairs, in February 1946 Cal Poly hosted and co-
sponsored the first Western Fairs Association College of Fairs (Santa Maria Daily Times and Courier,
February 18, 1947, p. 1). The program was designed “to improve efficiency of management during the
post war expansion of an industry” (Nevada State Journal, January 30, 1946, p. 9). Sessions covered
“every phase of fair operation, management, planning and promotion,” including the necessity of making
the fair manager a full-time paid position (Santa Maria Daily Times and Courier, February 18, 1947,
p. 1).
When the Sixteenth District revived its fair in 1946, it was called the San Luis Obispo County Fair.
Documents in the Western Fairs Collection at Cal Poly show that, in 1976, the Sixteenth District
Agricultural Association—described on its letterhead as “an Agency of the State of California”—was still
in charge of the San Luis Obispo County Fair (Western Fairs Collection, Record Group III [Joint
Commission on Fairs Allocation and Classification], Box 43, Folder 29). In 1981, the association
announced the rebranding of the fair as the San Luis Obispo County Mid-State Fair (Figure 26).
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Figure 26. In 1981, the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Fair was
branded the “Mid-State Fair” for the first time (Santa Maria Times, July 27,
1981, p. 18).
Racetrack Grandstands as an Architectural Resource Type
Racetrack grandstands— which are basically partially enclosed, roofed bleachers—offer a good example
of architectural form following function. They are found worldwide and, besides being associated with
horse racing, are sometimes seen next to ball fields, but the purpose is the same: to elevate spectators so
that they have a clear and unobstructed view of the track or field. The seats (usually benches) are
therefore built in banks of stair-stepped levels. Generally there is a broad, side-gabled roof supported on
tall (sometimes even spindly) posts or timbers, occasionally braced at the top and perhaps ornamented
with scrollwork brackets. The low side walls of the grandstand are constructed with a prominent diagonal
line (at a 45-degree angle), and above this line the grandstand may be open to the air, with no enclosure of
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any kind. Typically the area underneath the seating is fully enclosed and is used for storage, refreshment
stands, or other similar purposes related to spectator comfort; consequently there are often doors and
ground-floor windows in the main body of the structure. The vast majority of grandstands are wood-
framed with wood siding, but dressed stone, brick, and metal siding are also seen. The antecedents of
American grandstands are British, which often bear Victorian architectural flourishes.
For the sake of comparison, Appendix A presents a variety of grandstands from other American states and
elsewhere in California.
San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District Agricultural Association
Grandstand
Despite a great deal of popular interest in the racetrack and livestock show that accompanied the
Sixteenth District Agricultural Association fair, the San Luis Obispo venue was ultimately a financial
venture that failed. The local press—along with prominent out-of-town newspapers in Los Angeles, San
Francisco, and Sacramento—provided ample publicity, and local boosters did their best to promote it. The
fairs appear to have been well attended, with exhibitors and visitors from all around the county and
beyond. The Pacific Coast Steamship Company and the Pacific Coast Railway did their bit to transport
eager fair-goers to the racetrack.
The District Association directors, who were also prominent landowners, horse breeders, stock raisers,
and horticulturalists, were hoping to make a go of it, but were practical businessmen when hard decisions
had to be made. After 1900 the fair location migrated back and forth to Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande, and
back to San Luis Obispo before finally acquiring a permanent home in Paso Robles in 1946. From 1887
through to the present day, the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association has been the umbrella agency
for the county fair. Its present iteration began in 1946, when it was billed as the San Luis Obispo County
Fair. As the Mid-State Fair, the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association continues to open its gates and
welcome new generations of locals and out-of-town visitors to brave the sweltering summer days and
enjoy the long summer evenings for a few fleeting days each July.
Figures 27–29 are photos of the current state of the Sixteenth District Agricultural Association
Grandstand, taken by SWCA Senior Architectural Historian Ms. Carr on July 13, 2018, and Figure 30 is a
photo of Residence #2 from the San Luis Ranch EIR (Section 4.5, Photo 2, Rincon Consultants 2017),
which incorporates some drop-siding removed from the grandstand.
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Figure 27. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera facing west. The shed
roof additions and the modifications to the southeast elevation are not part of the original
grandstand.
Figure 28. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera facing southwest. The
drop siding, doorways, paneled door, and windows are all original. Side rooms housed the saloon
and the ladies’ rest area.
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Figure 29. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera facing southeast. A pair
of hinged doors and a hayfork were installed at the gable peak, and the shed roof addition was
constructed when the grandstand was modified for use as a hay barn. The angled window
opening shows the original raked incline of the grandstand seating; paired windows below are
original.
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Figure 30. Residence #2, shown here, incorporates some of the drop-siding
removed from the grandstand when it was moved to its present location
and converted into a barn.
REVISED ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATIONS
In November 2016, nine historic-period architectural resources on the San Luis Ranch property were
evaluated in connection with the 2017 San Luis Ranch EIR (Bailey et al. 2016; Rincon Consultants
2017). These nine resources included three residences, a main barn, a “spectators’ barn/ viewing stand,” a
warehouse, and three sheds. The 2016 evaluation made the following eligibility determinations:
• The property and the structures on the property . . . do not demonstrate sufficient
historical significance in national, state, or local agricultural development or as a
unique property type to warrant listing in the NRHP [National Register of Historic
Places].
• The San Luis Ranch Complex is eligible for listing in the CRHR [California Register
of Historical Resources] under Criterion 1 for its association with the early
agricultural development of San Luis Obispo. The San Luis Ranch property has
retained the complex of ranch buildings and cultivated fields for over a century. The
property is also representative of an early 20th century farm with its associated
buildings, agricultural fields and ancillary structures. The buildings reflect the
distinctive characteristics of the early 20th century vernacular agricultural
architecture, making the San Luis Ranch Complex also eligible for listing in the
CRHR under Criterion 3.
• The project site is not currently within the City limit. Therefore, neither the project
site nor any structures on the site are currently listed as a Historic or Cultural
Resource according to the above criteria. However, the San Luis Ranch property
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exemplifies an important period of local history, being established as a family farm
and developing into a valuable local agribusiness industry. The property is
representative of early 20th century agricultural and industrial development. The San
Luis Ranch Complex, as well as cultivated fields, has existed on the property for over
a century. The San Luis Ranch Complex is a rare remaining and intact example of a
farm complex representing the early agricultural history of San Luis Obispo.
Therefore, it is eligible for designation . . . as a City of San Luis Obispo historic
resource under Criterion A.1 (Style).
This San Luis Ranch Mitigation Report has been prepared in partial fulfillment of Mitigation Measure
CR-1(b), as the “detailed historic narrative report” and the “compilation of historic research” specified in
Section 4.5 (Cultural Resources) of the 2017 San Luis Ranch EIR. Additional information located during
the preparation of the mitigation report has made it advisable to revise some of the 2016 eligibility
determinations.
RESULTS OF ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
The Spectators’ Barn/Viewing Stand is the modified but sufficiently intact viewing stand (grandstand)
constructed in 1887 as part of the fairgrounds for the first fair held by State of California District
Agricultural Association No. 16 in San Luis Obispo County. As a late nineteenth century grandstand, it is
a rare surviving example of a scarce building type in California. Locally, it is the oldest surviving
building from the earliest days of the county fairs held under the auspices of the Sixteenth District
Agricultural Association and the only surviving building that links the first District Fair to the present-day
Mid-State Fair.
Further, hundreds of board feet of the original drop-siding removed from the southwest elevation of the
grandstand (when it was relocated on the parcel in 1900) were used to clad Residence #2; this original
material can now be reclaimed from the residence and used to substantially restore the exterior of the
viewing stand.
The primary significance of the barn/viewing stand does not lie in its role as a contributing resource to the
San Luis Ranch Complex, but as an individually eligible resource connected to San Luis Obispo County’s
Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Fair, horse-racing events at the fair, and the subsequent
historic development of the San Luis Obispo County Fair, including the Mid-State Fair.
Similarly, the primary significance of Residence #1 does not lie in its association with the Dalidio family,
who acquired the property in 1920, but with the Wood family (William Otterbein Wood, and his eldest
son, William Forrest Wood, and his family). The Wood family acquired the former fairground property in
1900 and built and determined the layout of all of the essential core buildings and structures of the San
Luis Ranch Complex: Residence #1 (built and occupied by the Wood family); Residence #2 (built by the
Wood family using lumber removed from the grandstand); the barn (built by the Wood family); and the
grandstand (moved and repurposed by William Otterbein Wood as a barn). This report therefore makes
the following revised eligibility determinations:
National Register of Historic Places
The following revised determinations are made for NRHP eligibility:
• The 1887 grandstand is eligible for the NRHP under Criterion A, at the state level of significance,
for its direct connection with the State of California’s District Agricultural Association fairs,
inaugurated in 1880, and for its direct connection with the incorporation of horse racing in state
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fairs. The persistence of state revenue generated by horse racing, which started with fairs, was
expanded in the 1930s through the advent of pari-mutuel betting and continues today in the
revenue stream supporting—among other entities—state universities such as Cal Poly.
• The 1887 grandstand is also eligible for the NRHP under Criterion C, at the state level of
significance, as a rare surviving example of a building type (horse-racing track grandstand)
constructed on a fairground under the auspices of the State of California’s system of District
Agricultural Associations.
California Register of Historical Resources
The following revised determinations are made for CRHR eligibility:
• The 1887 grandstand appears to meet the eligibility criteria for listing in the CRHR under
Criterion 1, at the state level of significance, for its direct connection with the State of
California’s District Agricultural Association fairs, inaugurated in 1885, and for its direct
connection with the incorporation of horse racing in state fairs. The persistence of state revenue
generated by horse racing, which started with fairs, was expanded in the 1930s through the advent
of pari-mutuel betting and continues today in the revenue stream supporting state universities
such as Cal Poly.
• The 1887 grandstand also appears to meet the eligibility criteria for listing in the CRHR under
Criterion 3, at the state level of significance, as a rare surviving example of a building type
(horse-racing track grandstand) constructed on a fairground under the auspices of the State of
California’s system of District Agricultural Associations.
San Luis Obispo Local Designation
The following revisions are proposed for San Luis Obispo Local Designation eligibility:
• The 1887 grandstand appears eligible as a Master List property under:
o Criterion A(1)(b): as a rare architectural building style
o Criterion B(2)(a): for its association with a first-of-its-kind event that made a significant
contribution to a broad pattern of local history
o Criterion B(3)(a): for its association with an early pattern of local history
o Criterion C(2): as a structure that has retained enough of its historic character and
appearance to be recognizable as a historic resource and to convey the reasons for its
significance
• The Wood Family Residence (Residence #1) appears individually eligible as a Contributing
Resource under:
o Criterion A(1)(a): for the relative purity of its Craftsman style
o Criterion A(2)(a): for its notable attractiveness and craftsmanship, especially in a
farmstead setting
o Criterion C(1)-C(3): for its integrity of location, materials, design, workmanship, setting,
feeling, and association
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REVISED ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATIONS AND TREATMENT
PLAN
As a result of the additional information and the revised eligibility determinations, the treatment plan for
the grandstand will be modified to better demonstrate its connection to its racetrack origins and to its
revised period of significance, 1887–1900, when it was an important, prominent, and architecturally
distinctive element of the racetrack grounds, designed to cater to the spectators who came to view the
“speed programme” elements of the fair.
After William Otterbein Wood acquired the racetrack property in 1900, he plowed up the race course,
moved the grandstand to its present location, removed several lengths of the redwood drop-siding from
the front of the building, and converted it to a barn. He reused the wood siding to clad a house he built
(Residence #2) shortly thereafter. Residence #2 is slated for demolition as part of the proposed
redevelopment project; the original drop-siding from the grandstand will be carefully removed and used
for restoration of the grandstand building. Elements associated with the grandstand’s use as a barn will be
removed, as they obscure the significance of the building as a racetrack grandstand.
There are several positive results that stem from the revised eligibility determinations:
• The grandstand will be more properly understood for its important connections to the Sixteenth
District Agricultural Association and the development of the San Luis Obispo County Fair;
• A rare building type will be freed from later, inconsistent additions and will be partially restored
using its own reclaimed original materials;
• The grandstand will be relocated to a place more consistent with its original location (with a
similar viewshed, which it currently lacks); and
• The grandstand gains the potential for reuse as a viewing stand.
This report also recommends contacting the California Mid-State Fair Heritage Foundation, whose
mission statement is: To preserve and enrich the heritage of the 16th District Agricultural Association
(http://www.thecmsfheritagefoundation.org/).
• California Mid-State Fair Heritage Foundation
P.O. Box 8
Paso Robles, CA 93447
(805) 238-3745
Treatment Plan
Residence #1
• Cut down vegetation and remove fencing around perimeter of residence.
• Take black-and-white “as-built” photographs
• Prepare building for moving to temporary relocation area.
• Secure building at temporary relocation area.
• Move residence to permanent location on San Luis Ranch development.
• Restore exterior according to Secretary of the Interior Standards (SOIS) for Restoration of
Historic Properties.
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• Rehabilitate interior according to SOIS for Rehabilitation for Historic Properties to accommodate
Historic Building Code and adaptive reuse in San Luis Ranch Development.
Residence #2
• Cut down vegetation and remove fencing from perimeter of residence.
• Demolish additions on west side.
• Take black-and-white “as-built” photographs.
• Carefully remove original drop-siding from residence for reinstallation on grandstand.
• Demolish remainder of residence.
Residence #3
• Demolish or remove residence from site.
Warehouse
• Demolish or remove warehouse from site.
Barn
• Although the barn did not originally have a metal roof, it is not advisable to remove it for any “as-
built” photographs, as the essential form is intact as it is. The hay fork should be retained for
interpretive purposes.
• Take black-and-white “as-built” photographs of the barn interior.
• Disassemble the barn, retaining all salvageable lumber that may be serviceable for the
construction of the barn at the new location.
• Build the new barn using salvaged lumber to the extent feasible and appropriate.
• If the barn is to be placed on a concrete slab, the floor will be finished with an Americans eith
Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant stabilized surface approximating the appearance of the local
soil.
Racetrack Grandstand
• Remove barn-era additions on north, west, and south side of racetrack grandstand.
• Take black-and-white “as-built’ photographs
• Prepare building for moving to temporary relocation area.
• Secure building at temporary relocation area.
• Move building to permanent location on San Luis Ranch Development
• Restore building according to SOIS for Restoration of Historic Properties, retaining hay mow and
hayfork assembly for interpretive purposes.
Sheds
• Cut down vegetation from perimeter of sheds and remove debris from interior of open-sided
sheds.
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• Take black-and-white “as-built” photos.
• Demolish sheds.
Structure at North Corner of Property
• Demolish structure.
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PREPARER’S QUALIFICATIONS
SWCA Senior Architectural Historian Paula Juelke Carr, M.A., meets the Secretary of the Interior’s
Standards for Professionally Qualified Staff as both historian and architectural historian. Ms. Carr has
more than 25 years of experience in California history and architectural history, including more than 11
years as an Associate Environmental Planner (Architectural History) for the California Department of
Transportation, District 5.
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REFERENCES CITED
Angel, Myron
1976 History of San Luis Obispo County, California, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Fresno: Word Dancer Press, in association with Friends
of the Adobes [facsimile of original 1883 edition published by Thompson & West,
Oakland].
Bailey, Ashlee M., Susan Zamudio-Gurrola, and Shannon Carmack
2016 Cultural Resources Survey and Evaluation: City of San Luis Obispo, San Luis Ranch
Project. Prepared by Rincon Consultants. November 2016.
Bertrando and Bertrando Research Consultants
1999a Historical Resources Inventory and Evaluation for the San Luis Marketplace Annexation:
The Dalidio Property, San Luis Obispo, CA. Submitted to Applied EarthWorks, Inc.
1999b Historical Evaluation for the Existing Structures on the Proposed San Luis Obispo
Marketplace Annexation: The Dalidio Property, San Luis Obispo, CA. Submitted to Applied
EarthWorks, Inc.
California Mid-State Fair Heritage Foundation
2018 The California Mid-State Fair Heritage Foundation. Available at:
http://www.thecmsfheritagefoundation.org/. Accessed August 2018.
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) Library Special Collections
Various Dates Fairs Collection, MS #9, FF141, Folder 5
Various Dates Fairs Collection, Record Group II: Division of Fairs and Expositions
Various Dates Fairs Collection, Record Group III: Joint Commission on Fairs Allocation and
Classification, Box 43, Folder 29
California State Agricultural Society
1876 Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society During the Year 1875. Sacramento:
A.J. Johnston, Supt. State Printing, 1876.
1886 Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society During the Year 1885. Sacramento:
A.J. Johnston, Supt. State Printing, 1886.
1891 Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society During the Year 1890. Sacramento:
A.J. Johnston, Supt. State Printing, 1891.
1895 Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society During the year 1894. Sacramento:
A. J. Johnston, Supt. State Printing, 1895.
1896 Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society During the year 1895. Sacramento:
A. J. Johnston, Supt. State Printing, 1896.
Morrison, Annie L., and John H. Haydon
2002 Pioneers of San Luis Obispo County & Environs. San Miguel, California: Friends of the
Adobes, Inc., in association with Word Dancer Press, Sanger, California [facsimile of
original 1917 edition].
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Olmstead, Alan L., and Paul W. Rhode
2017 A History of California Agriculture. University of California: Giannini Foundation of
Agricultural Economics. Available at:
https://s.giannini.ucop.edu/uploads/giannini_public/19/41/194166a6-cfde-4013-ae55-
3e8df86d44d0/a_history_of_california_agriculture.pdf. Accessed August 2018.
Pollock, Rosemary
2009 “A Brief History of the Ventura County Fair: 1874-1946.” Journal of Ventura County
History 52(1):2–19.
Vachell, Horace Annesley
1901 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. Provided by the
Library of Congress. Available at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.0017188780A.
Accessed August 2018.
Windsor Historical Society
2016 Glory Days of Sage Park. Windsor Historical Society Chronicles 34(3). September 2016.
Newspapers (individual citations provided in text)
Los Angeles Herald
Los Angeles Times
Nevada State Journal
Oxnard Courier
Pacific Rural Press
Sacramento Record-Union
San Bernardino County Sun
San Francisco Call
San Francisco Chronicle
San Luis Obispo Daily Republic
San Luis Obispo Semi-Weekly Breeze
San Luis Obispo Daily Tribune
San Luis Obispo Tribune
San Luis Obispo Weekly Tribune
Santa Cruz Evening News
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Santa Maria Times
Santa Maria Daily Times and Courier
Ventura Free-Press
Maps
Buchanan, E. Y.
1887 Map of the Central Addition to the City of San Luis Obispo, California, as laid out for
Edwin Goodall, in June 1887; revised to December 1887 by James L. Drum.
Foreman, S.W.
1876 Harford & Chapman’s Sub-Division of Lands in T.31.S. R.12.East. M.D.Mer. in San Luis
Obispo Co., Cal. Surveyed July 26, 1876.
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Harris, R. R.
1875 Map of Resubdivision of Rancho Laguna (unrecorded).
Henry, Brice M.
1858 Plat of the Laguna Rancho, Finally Confirmed to J. S. Alemany, Bishop, etc. Surveyed
under Instructions from the U.S. Surveyor General by Brice M. Henry, Deputy Surveyor,
July 1858.
Parsons, A. F.
1920 Survey No. 119 A, September 14, 1920.
Stratton, James
1868 Map of the Subdivisions of the ranchos Cañada de los Osos and La Laguna, San Luis Obispo
County, California. Surveyed by Jas. T. Stratton, May 1868 (San Luis Obispo County Maps
Book A, p. 83).
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APPENDIX A
Examples of Racetrack Grandstands
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RACE TRACK GRANDSTANDS AS AN ARCHITECTURAL
RESOURCE TYPE
A common theme in articles about surviving examples is their rarity and efforts to preserve them. Also
included here are contemporary photographs of important racetrack elements that the San Luis Obispo
track once possessed: railings, judges’ stands, and stables. No photographs or sketches of the San Luis
Obispo racetrack have yet come to light (although it is likely that some exist), but the key elements are
very likely to have resembled some of these structures.
Grandstands in Other States
Figure A-1. Grandstand, Springfield, Maine
(https://www.thespringfieldfair.com/directions?lightbox=dataItem-j5b6lj2n1).
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Figure A-2. Grandstand, entrance gate, judges’ viewing stand, press/guests’ viewing stand, Sage
Park, Windsor, Connecticut, c1910s (Source: Windsor Historical Society
https://windsorhistoricalsociety.org/glory-days-of-sage-park/).
Figure A-3. Stables, track, railings, and a judge’s viewing stand at one of the turns, Sage Park,
Windsor, Connecticut (Source: Windsor Historical Society, 2016.1.69,
https://windsorhistoricalsociety.org/glory-days-of-sage-park/).
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Figure A-4. Regner Park Grandstand, West Bend, Wisconsin
(https://www.washingtoncountyinsider.com/head-nod-to-history-and-the-old-
grandstand-at-regner-park/).
Figure A-5. Franklin County Fairgrounds, Hilliard, Ohio, 1941
(http://blog.likingstuff.com/2014/07/a-grand-and-celebratory-old-hilliard.html).
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Figure A-6. Fairfield County Fair grandstand, Lancaster, Ohio, destroyed by
arson in 2016 (https://www.farmanddairy.com/top-stories/fairfield-county-
landmark-burns-to-the-ground/372259.html).
Figure A-7. New Butler County (Ohio) Fair grandstand, 1913
(https://lillianscupboard.wordpress.com/category/fairs/).
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Figure A-8. Canton, Ohio Agricultural Park grandstand, June 2018 (P. Carr,
photo).
Figure A-9. Judges’ stand at Trempealeau County Fair racetrack, 1897; the
pony “chariot race” was an exhibition event
(http://trempealeaucountyhistory.org/?page_id=793).
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Figure A-10. Rising Park Fairgrounds, Mt. Pleasant, Ohio
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/01/2d/82/012d82f681408ec60bf1ba3ae5de580b.jpg).
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California Grandstands
Figure A-11. Fresno Fairgrounds with clubhouse and grandstand, c. 1890
(http://store.valleyhistory.org/images/detailed/0/PF_045a.jpg).
Figure A-12. Advertising cut for October 8–12, 1895 Ventura Agricultural Fair, held at the
Agricultural Park (Pollock 2009).
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Figure A-13. Sonoma County Fair Grounds. The grandstand was replaced in 1955.
Figure A-14. Ballpark grandstand in Healdsburg, Sonoma County, renovated in
2012 as the Clarence Ruonavaara Grandstand in Recreation Park
(https://patch.com/california/healdsburg/healdsburg-turns-out-for-dedication-
of-clarence-ruona89daa179e5).
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San Luis Obispo’s Sixteenth District Agricultural Association
Grandstand
Figure A-15. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera
facing southeast. A pair of hinged doors and a hayfork were installed at the
gable peak, and the shed roof addition was constructed when the grandstand
was modified for use as a hay barn. The angled window opening shows the
original raked incline of the grandstand seating; paired windows below are
original (SWCA, July 13, 2018).
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Figure A-16. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera
facing west. The shed roof additions and the modifications to the southeast
elevation are not part of the original grandstand (SWCA, July 13, 2018).
Figure A-17. Sixteenth District Agricultural Association Grandstand, camera
facing southwest. The drop siding, doorways, paneled door and windows are
all original. Side rooms housed the saloon and the ladies’ rest area (SWCA,
July 13, 2018).
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