History of Atascadero

Atascadero can trace its beginning to a Mexican land grant when in 1845 Governor Pio Pico granted Pedro Estrada almost 40,000 acres of the Asuncion Rancho, a good portion of which eventually made up part of the smaller 23,000 acre Atascadero Rancho. Through various and natural ownership changes, the 23,000 acre Atascadero Rancho came to be owned by J.H. Henry of San Jose after California became the 31st state of the Union.


In 1913 publisher Edward Gardner Lewis left University City, Missouri and came west to begin what was to be a model community. He eventually recorded what was the largest single subdivision map in San Luis Obispo County. Atascadero was a “planned community” from the very beginning. Using his printing presses still in Missouri, Lewis began to tell the world about his new community on the Central Coast of California (for which he paid $37.50 an acre.) He hired experts in many different fields – agriculture, engineering, planning – to help him create the “Atascadero Colony.” An army of workers toiled here for almost two years planting fruit trees, putting in water mains and even constructing a 17-mile road to Morro Bay that is today California Highway 41, the “E.G. Lewis Highway.” Within view of Morro Rock, Lewis built a beach front hotel known as the “Cloisters” where now a housing tract on that property bears the same name.


New property owners lived in a “Tent City” while their homes were being built for them. Those homes ranged from modest single-story bungalows, to multiple story “mansions” as people came to Lewis’ new community to begin a new life. Many of those homes are still standing today and are kept in an excellent state of repair by their proud owners.


Critical to the success of the development of the Colony was a national promotional campaign. Of the four civic center buildings created in the beginning, the Printery was the first to be completed. In it was installed the largest rotogravure press west of Chicago. Lewis published and printed the Atascadero News and a picture-filled news magazine The Illustrated Review, which grew to a nationwide circulation of more than 600,000 copies a month. The Printery sits at the corner of Olmeda and West Mall.


Close behind the completion of the Printery was the Atascadero Administration Building, which today serves as the seat of government for the city. The building is also a California Historical Landmark (No. 958). It was built over a four-year period, from 1914 to 1918. The original cost of construction was estimated at $250,000. The Historical Society’s Museum is in the lower rotunda: a room originally designed to serve as an exhibition hall for local products, along with cultural and artistic displays. The smaller rooms around the lower and upper rotunda served as offices for the many functions of the Colony, just as they do for the city today.


The third major building in the civic center was the Mercantile, or “La Plaza,” which was a three-story building in which all the retail and service needs for the residents were met under one roof. It was finished in the summer of 1917 and the governor of California came for the opening. The building underwent a major transformation in 1927 when it was reopened as the Atascadero Inn. The Inn was destroyed in a late-night fire in September of 1934, never to be rebuilt.


Two other buildings in the civic center included the elementary school (torn down in 1953) and the hospital, which is still standing and serves as a county health clinic. A unique railroad station was constructed in 1922, which stood at the base of Pine Mountain at the end of Capistrano Avenue.


Late in 1924 Lewis came under attack by some investors. In 1925 he was forced into involuntary bankruptcy and a Seattle attorney by the name of Oscar Willett was appointed by the courts to oversee the Atascadero plan. Willett formed the Atascadero Development Syndicate (ADS) and early on sold off a number of Lewis’ buildings. City Hall, the Printery and hospital were sold to Ralph Moran, who had an upscale junior college on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound area. Moran converted the City Hall and Printery over to classrooms and dorms to serve as a southern California campus. The William Lewis Hospital became the infirmary for the college, but was soon sold off to San Luis Obispo County as a general hospital.


Later the county purchased the City Administration Building and used it as a Veteran’s Memorial Building, until it was given to the new City of Atascadero in 1979.