Virtual Tours
Living
on the Land Tour
Page 3
Stenner Creek Trestle
9 - San Luis Obispo: Take Hwy 1 to Stenner Creek Road, 0.7 miles north
of the Highland Drive entrance to Cal Poly (no left turn off
southbound Hwy 1). Follow Stenner Creek Road 1.6 miles to the base of
the trestle. Get out and look up.
The Stenner Creek railroad trestle is the most
impressive relic of that day in early May, 1894, when the Southern
Pacific mainline from the north finally linked San Luis Obispo to the
wider world. The trestle was the last step in the monumental effort to
tunnel and switchback a route through the Santa Lucia mountains. The
935 foot long, 90 foot tall steel superstructure was partially
preassembled in Pittsburgh, then erected and bolted to its granite
piers on site. A century later Amtrac trains and heavy freights still
cross its seemingly skinny girders every day. Until 1894 local local
economic development had stalled for want of cheap and reliable
transportation. County residents depended on rutty wagon roads, small
coastal steamers, and the narrow gauge Pacific Coast Railroad (serving
the hinterland south to Los Olivos) for supplies and access to
markets. The coming of the SP (completed through to Los Angeles in
1901) fueled a regional boom. Expanded outlets for agricultural
products, easier access to a wider range of material goods, faster
communications, and an influx of new residents ushered the county into
into an era of agricultural diversity and opportunity.
Central Creamery
10 - San Luis Obispo: The Creamery is located at 570 Higuera Street,
San Luis Obispo, near Nipomo Street, three blocks south of Mission
Plaza. Other commercial dairy buildings nearby include the Challenge
Creamery (991 Nipomo, no Reis Chapel), and Garden Dairy (341 Higuera
Street, now an army surplus and camping store).
Massive refrigerator doors, a roof-mounted cooling
tower, and remnants of boilers and piping recycled into planters hint
that this graphic arts mini-mall was once a dairy processing plant.
The complex evolved through the years. The original Central Creamery
building, recycled in 1910 from an earlier machine shop, stands to the
right. The back buildings date from 1910-1929; the street-facing
office building and connecting facade, with sign, was added in 1928.
Owners and firm names changed over the years, from Central Creamery to
California Central Creamery to Golden State Creamery to Foremost. The
second creamery established in the city, in 1974 it was the last to
shut down. Subsequently developers remodeled the old creamery into
attractive creek-side retail and restaurant spaces.
Large scale commercial dairying came to San Luis
Obispo county in the 1860s. By 1882 dairy products ranked second only
to wheat in dollar value. In order to minimize shipping costs to
distant markets, local production centered on low bulk, high value
butter and cheese. San Luis Obispo county became one of California’s
leading dairy products exporters. By 1925 the Creamery was producing
1.2 million pounds of butter a year, and there were three additional
creameries clustered within a four block radius. Later in the 20th
century, corporate consolidations in the food industry and the local
ranchers’ shift from dairy to beef production made these once
thriving smaller scale creamery operations obsolete.
Sinsheimer Brothers Store
11 - San Luis Obispo: Sinsheimer Bros. Store is located in San Luis
Obispo at 849 Monterey Street, between Morro and Chorro Streets, a
half block from Mission Plaza.
The Sinsheimer Brothers Store (1884) is a rare local
example of “cast iron front” commercial architecture, a building
type developed in the 1850s to reduce danger from fire, the scourge of
Victorian urban life. Designed by William Knowles of Oakland, the
structure’s cast iron facade, iron interior supporting columns,
exterior brick walls, and steel plate shutters made it relatively fire
proof. The fire shutters on the rear wall survive. Built before plate
glass display windows became common, the Sinsheimer facade emphasized
large entry doors beckoning customers inside to view goods arrayed on
counters and shelved floor-to-ceiling along the walls, accessible from
rolling ladders still in place. The proprietors oversaw the store and
managed their other enterprises from the balcony office along the rear
wall. The original office vault and furnishings are intact, but not
accessible to the public. The remarkably intact sales floor interior
conveys a sense of the scale, feel, and clutter of a late 19th century
small town mercantile establishment.
The Sinsheimer Bros. Store is also an agricultural
landmark, even though its impact on rural life went on behind the
scenes. Bernard and Henry Sinsheimer founded the firm in 1876. The
brothers (Bernard and Aaron in San Luis Obispo, Henry in San
Francisco) became key middlemen in the county’s rapidly developing
agricultural economy. They were prominent brokers in the wheat, barley
and bean trades, funneling local produce to the San Francisco market.
As merchants, they supplied farm families with a full range of dry
goods, hardware, and other necessities. As private bankers, they
provided essential consumer credit until harvest.
E.C. Loomis & Son Feed Store
12 - Arroyo Grande: From Hwy 101 at Arroyo Grande, take the Grand
Avenue (Rt. 227) exit. Follow the signs to Lopez Lake 0.5 miles
through the village to E.C. Loomis and Son at 415 East Branch Street
(on your left).
The weathered E. C. Loomis and Son establishment has
been a mainstay of Arroyo Grande valley agriculture for ninety years.
The original structure had corrugated steel walls and roof, still
visible from the rear of the customer parking lot. Later additions
included shed extensions, board and batten siding, and outbuildings.
Price Canyon mines supplied material for the original asphalt floor,
still visible in the storage area.Edward Loomis came to the area as a
young man well aware that agriculture depended on cheap and convenient
transportation. He founded the firm in 1905 (the date on the street
facade), then in 1910 built this warehouse at the village
transportation hub — facing the main street, directly across from
the Pacific Coast (narrow gauge) Railroad depot and Wells Fargo
freight station, and next to the narrow gauge spur track. The
low-roofed portion of the building next to the parking lot covers the
old narrow gauge roadbed.
For decades the warehouse was a landmark shipping
outlet for local farm products, and remains a general farm supply
store. At one time the firm operated a 20 ton steam driven roller for
processing local barley, and maintained a public scale. For several
generations the Loomis family was part of an informal network of
occasional brokers, investors and private bankers who underwrote the
local agricultural economy. The current feed store is operated by
Julie Wilson, great-granddaughter of E. C. Loomis. The building
complex is pending designation as a California State landmark.
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County
Map of Areas and Sites on This Tour
