Historic SLO soda shop was hit by a runaway truck and flood waters. It refused to fall
Some buildings have hard luck.
The Soda Works building in San Luis Obispo was one of them.
A soda business and wine shop had been operated in San Luis Obispo since the late 1800s. By the early 1900s, the business was located at a building where Monterey Street deadended at Nipomo Street.
In April 1953, a runaway semi truck that had lost its brakes on the Cuesta Grade slammed into the Soda Works building, smashing a corner of the downtown structure.
The truck sat in nearby San Luis Obispo Creek until that August while insurance companies wrangled over who would pay for removal.
The construction of freeway through town reduced the threat of runaway trucks, but the creek was biding its time.
Four decades later, San Luis Obispo Creek tried to demolish the building. The epic floods of 1995 weren’t isolated to one region or one month.
San Luis Obispo County got so much rain that year that Highway 46 closed at the Cholame Y, where it meets with Highway 41, due to high water. Cambria was flooded in March 1995.
In January 1995, the Soda Works building was almost burned down by the city after it was dangerously undermined by the creek. (Spoiler alert: The structure was saved from collapse and later dismantled, to be replaced by a new building with the same name and look.)
Veteran city officials remembered how San Luis Obispo flooded in 1973 in part because mobile homes and trucks washed into the creek, creating a dam backing water into town.
The following story by Ken McCall ran in the Telegram-Tribune on Jan. 11. 1995. It’s been edited for length:
Soda Works building still standing tall
SAN LUIS OBISPO — The old Soda Works building on Nipomo Street was still standing this morning despite a battering by storm-swollen San Luis Obispo Creek.
The muddy, racing waters, which rose to within 10 feet of the newly rebuilt Nipomo Street Bridge, broke through a concrete foundation wall of the century-old building, flooding its crawlspace and knocking out several wooden support posts.
The structural damage was severe enough that city officials were worried the big, two-story building might tumble into the creek if the waters rose again, causing an accidental dam and flooding the downtown.
That threat prompted them to hastily come up with emergency plans that included burning the building down, if necessary.
Working with the city Fire Department and city officials, a Cuesta Camp inmate crew supervised by the California Department of Forestry brought in wood and packing pallets to fuel a fire. Crews also cut holes in the roof and second story floor to act as a chimney so the building would — in theory — burn and collapse in upon itself. But that tactic, which Fire Marshal Ken McCool called a “last resort,” was never needed.
Despite sometimes heavy rains throughout the afternoon, the creek never approached the levels of Monday night. In addition, the city hired Burke Construction to bring in timbers Tuesday afternoon and shore up the breached wall and damaged support posts.
As a result, Fire Chief Bob Neumann told the City Council on Tuesday night that the “quickly engineered” structural supports had stabilized the building and there would likely be no need for drastic action.
It didn’t look that way Tuesday afternoon, however, when the rain was steadily falling and the creek was slowly rising again. After inspecting the damage to the building — which was first noticed early in the morning by Police Chief Jim Gardiner — City Building Official Tom Baasch declared the structure a safety hazard. A 20-foot section of the wall of the building had been damaged, he said, along with several of the supporting posts.
“If the water would rise again to the level it was last night,” he said, surveying the creek in the steady rain, “it would go underneath the building and dislodge more of the posts. If that happens and more of the exterior wall collapses the building would be out of balance and fall into the creek.”
After some discussions, Baasch said, city officials came up with the two-option plan about 2 p.m. By 3 p.m. the construction team was on the job shoring up the building. Co-owner Mary Mitchell-Leitcher, was standing in a back door of the old building watching the crews work.
“There isn’t much we could do about it,” she said. “Mother Nature took its course and we’re working with the city to try to save the building.
“But if the creek were to rise and would be a threat to the health and safety of the town, we give the whole thing over to the city. We trust their judgment.”
Mitchell-Leitcher said that while she and her husband, Michael Leitcher, had gotten city permission to demolish the building, “we weren’t going to do it this way, with all this cost.” They had lined up a Templeton salvager who would tear down the building in exchange for the redwood it contained. “This building is all clear redwood,” she said.
They plan to renovate the building, which most recently has been used as a warehouse. The Soda Works name stems from production of seltzer water there during the early 1900s.
By late Tuesday night, however, as the rains and the creek subsided, it looked like the Leitchers would have some time to take the building down.
“What we’ll probably do is give them a 60-day notice,” Fire Chief Neumann said.
