OUR TOWN
Located in the heart of the Central Coast of California, Atascadero (pronounced ah-task-a-dare-oh) is halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, 18 miles from the coast. Atascadero's central location provides easy access to the local wine region, coastal beaches, and back roads for bicycling or touring.
OUR
HISTORY
ATASCADERO is a Spanish name which, loosely translated, means "a
place of much water."
The area was originally home to
the Salinas Indians. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Spanish
Franciscans established 21 missions along the California coast,
including two in San Luis Obispo County. The settling of Atascadero
began with the Franciscan clergy who managed the 60,000 acre Rancho
Asuncion until 1833, when the Mexican government secularized the
mission lands. Early area land owners included Pedro Estrada,
Patrick Washington Murphy, and J.H. Henry.
The community of Atascadero was founded in 1913 as a utopian,
planned colony by Edward Gardner Lewis, a successful magazine
publisher from the East. (The first civic building in Atascadero,
the Printery, had the first rotogravure press west of Chicago.)
Lewis had previously created such a community at University City,
Missouri.
The centerpiece of Lewis' planned community was an Italian
Renaissance-style building built between 1914 and 1918 with bricks
made from local clay (California's Historical Landmark No. 958). It
eventually became home to Atascadero City Hall and a museum, until
the building was closed (awaiting repair) after the San Simeon
earthquake, in Dec. of 2003.
Atascadero was incorporated in
1979. Today, with nearly 28,000 residents, Atascadero is the third
largest city in the county of San Luis Obispo.
