9 pivotal moments that shaped SLO County history

This collection of stories traces pivotal changes and events that shaped SLO County’s community.

The banning of wood buildings in downtown after the Andrews Hotel fire redefined San Luis Obispo’s cityscape, while the origin of the Cass House ties into Cayucos’ founding and maritime history.

Chong’s Home Made Candies’ neon sign marks the lost Chinatown on Palm Street, and the streetcars like Old No. 1 show the city’s evolving transportation. A Cuesta Canyon project and the 13 women who kept the railroad running during WWII reveal lesser-known stories of resilience and adaptation.

Read the stories below.

The Osos Street side of the Andrews Bank building was being sand blasted to remove paint May 7, 1974. At far left across Monterey St. a corner of the Obispo Theater shows. The movie palace burned down in Dec. 1975. The lot at far right is now the City/County Library. By Wayne Nicholls

NO. 1: LANDMARK BUILDING CHANGED THE WAY DOWNTOWN SLO WAS BUILT — AND IT STILL STANDS TODAY

Parts of the historic downtown building are more than 130 years old. | Published May 18, 2024 | Read Full Story by David Middlecamp

The largest fire in San Luis Obispo history at the time, according to the Daily Telegram on Aug. 10, 1929, was the 50,000-acre Rinconada-Lopez Canyon fire. It only merited second deck headlines in the paper with the stock market rising and falling on the way to a record crash and stories about the travels of the Graf Zeppelin. By San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram

NO. 2: WHAT SPARKED ONE OF SLO COUNTY’S LARGEST-EVER WILDFIRES? A TRACTOR ON SANTA MARGARITA RANCH

The 1929 fire scorched nearly 50,000 acres in rural San Luis Obispo County. | Published June 22, 2024 | Read Full Story by David Middlecamp

Harold Miossi fought to prevent a Cuesta Grade road expansion from paving over much of his ranch in the 1960s. He is seen here at a Nov. 4, 1993 interview. By Robert Dyer

NO. 3: HOW SLO ACTIVIST SAVED CUESTA CANYON FROM BEING ‘BURIED ALIVE’ BY HIGHWAY PROJECT. ‘WHY NOT?’

“When I saw the plans, I just sat there in total disbelief,” he later recounted. | Published July 13, 2024 | Read Full Story by David Middlecamp

San Luis Creek flows under the city for a little over two blocks below Higuera Street. Most of the route is unlit darkness. This view is from Sept. 5, 1975. By Jay Martinez

NO. 4: THERE’S A TUNNEL RUNNING BENEATH DOWNTOWN SLO? SEE WHAT LIES IN CITY’S HIDDEN UNDERBELLY

“It’s there for those who had at least a small sense of adventure,” one reporter wrote in 1975. | Published October 12, 2024 | Read Full Story by David Middlecamp

The San Luis Obispo Southern Pacific Railroad roundhouse in 1953. The last of Southern Pacific’s steam locomotives pulled out of the roundhouse in September 1956.

NO. 5: THESE 13 WOMEN KEPT SLO’S RAILROAD RUNNING DURING WWII. ‘A MAN’S JOB — BUT I CAN DO IT’

“One of my girlhood ambitions was to get right into the heart of the whistling demons,” one said. | Published January 11, 2025 | Read Full Story by David Middlecamp

No image found

Candy maker Richard Chong had a candy store on Palm Street in San Luis Obispo’s Chinatown. The sign that used to be over the store at the corner of Palm and Chorro is now mounted on the parking garage seen here Jan 28, 2025. By Telegram

NO. 6: NEON SIGN ON SLO PARKING GARAGE RECALLS CHINATOWN PAST. WHAT WAS CHONG’S HOME MADE CANDIES?

The 9-foot-wide sign “celebrates a man who was a wonderful part of the community,” his friend said. | Published January 30, 2025 | Read Full Story by Hannah Poukish

The county garage used to be located at 1044 Monterey St. in San Luis Obispo on August 16, 1972. The former auto dealership building was torn down in 1976 after safety issues were raised about the old facility including lack of ventilation and a leaking gasoline tank. By Wayne Nicholls

NO. 7: FROM ’50S CAR DEALERSHIP TO FUME-RIDDEN DEPOT, SEE INSIDE LONG-GONE SLO COUNTY SERVICE GARAGE

Fumes at one point were reportedly so bad at the garage that an employee passed out — forcing some changes in the organization. | Published March 1, 2025 | Read Full Story by David Middlecamp

The Cass House estate, built by Capt. James Cass in 1875 mere steps from the sea and converted in the past 30 years into a mini resort, was listed for sale in late February 2025. By Behnam Investment Group

NO. 8: HISTORIC SLO COUNTY LANDMARK IS FOR SALE — AND IT’LL ONLY COST YOU $8.7 MILLION

The building was built in 1875 by one of the North Coast’s most prominent founders. | Published March 7, 2025 | Read Full Story by Kathe Tanner

This scene south on Higuera Street at about Chorro Street distributed by the Morning Tribune in postcard size to its readers on Jan 1, 1890. San Luis Street Railway pulled by horse is at right while carrier makes his way across a mud street. The Tribune, and all other newspapers published here in earlier years, frequently complained about the mud in winter and the dust in summer.

NO. 9: WHAT HAPPENED TO SLO’S OLD STREETCARS? INSIDE THE MANY LIVES OF ‘OLD NO. 1’

When the city’s streetcars were retired from service in 1906, one found its adventuresome life just beginning. | Published May 31, 2025 | Read Full Story by David Middlecamp

The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists.