The history of the San Luis Obispo County and the Central Coast of California.

Our members are local residents from all walks of life. We share a fascination with Central Coast histories and cultures, particularly as they relate to each other and connect our region to the wider world.

Heritage Shared fosters inclusive, participatory community histories, especially through historical research and interpretation, publications, history education, exhibits and public programs, and historic preservation. The organization also encourages cooperative ventures among Central Coast cultural organizations, believing that the past belongs to all of us and grows richer in the sharing.

HeritageShared.org strives to help keep news about Central Coast history timely and easily accessible. It serves as a newsletter, calendar of upcoming historically related events, medium for virtual tours of notable historic sites and structures, and as an open archive of historical resources for the convenience of the broader community.

A Bit of a Mystery: Ignace Jan Paderewski's Henhouse, Polish, 1860-1941, was an extraordinary figure in recent history, both as a musical genius and as a politician and statesman in Poland. He came to California and lived a while at Atascadero.  In 1931 or thereabouts, Paderewski made an investment in a chicken or poultry enterprise called Runnymeade, the world's largest "henhouse" as it was called.  During the heart of the depression it went bankrupt. Do you know anything about Runnymeade? If so, please send an email to us at C Headland or Astrid. We're very curious!

A series of video podcasts is available for download through iTunes from the History Center of SLO County at Historic Downtown San Luis Obispo Walking Tour.

Hathi Trust Digital Library - Astounding website offers millions of pages of historical sources For free in the privacy of your own home. The Hathitrust  is a partnership of more than 60 major research libraries that offers free, keyword searchable, digital access to millions of historical and cultural works. The website us very user-friendly. The keyword-searchable feature means that every single title is digitally indexed, a godsend for researchers looking for small items in big books.

Type in a topic of interest, and see what pops. An advanced search query for "San Luis Obispo" and "California," for example, yields 141,000 hits, ranging from governmental documents to Myron Angel's classic county history to such hard-to-find historical sources as the magazine of the Halcyon Temple.

A Sample of What's Inside An Excerpt from: Barns are Noble Historical resources include, but are not limited to, buildings, structures, sites, areas and places that are historically significant or that are significant in the architectural, engineering, scientific, economic, agricultural, educational, social, political, military or cultural annals of the city, region, state or nation. Some prominent examples found in California include Hearst Castle, the Golden Gate Bridge, Luther Burbank’s home, the Santa Barbara Presidio and the towers of Simon Rodia. In San Luis Obispo, we are fortunate to have several historical resources including the Karl Kundert Medical Building, the Mission, the Stenner Creek railroad trestle, the Dallidet Adobe and the Octagon barn, to name just a few. The Cultural Heritage Committee, a group of seven citizens who advise the City Council on cultural resource preservation, developed guidelines, and they are a part of the city’s environmental guidelines. Private citizens, property owners, developers, design professionals, staff, the Cultural Heritage Committee and decision makers will use these guidelines as a resource for determining whether or not a property is a historical resource and for determining whether their undertaking is subject to the city’s regulations governing historical resources.

We recently received this fascinating request and want to share it with you. If you have some images you can share or want to help, just contact Richard Taylor Architects. Hello - my wife and I begun a blog about the beauty in abandoned homes and farms called Abandoned Beauty. We’d love to have your help with our project. We know there are photographs out there of historic homes that are in ruins, and archived photos of houses that are (sadly!) no longer standing. We’re hoping your organization might have photos like those that you’re willing to share on our blog. What we’re looking for – ideally – are images of homes and farm buildings that have been abandoned, but still show vestiges of the original beauty of their design.  We’d especially love to have a little bit of info about the home or farm – where it’s located, how the photo was taken, and especially something of its history. We want to give full credit to the photo’s source or photographer, whether that’s a link to your website, an email address, whatever you’d like.  We’re also happy to note copyrights where applicable. Our interest is in showing interesting photos, with interesting stories to go with them. We have no interest in acquiring any rights to any of the photos, so all will always stay with the owner…you’re just letting us show them to the world. We have no interest in publishing anything in any form other than this blog.  We do hope to eventually attract a few sponsors to help defray some of our costs. Do you have some photos that you can share with us?  We'd love to have the chance to feature some of your history in what we hope will become a popular blog. . Thanks, Rich and Karen Taylor

Heritage Shared is a chartered, 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to inclusive, participatory community history.