MERCEDES AVENUE STREETSCAPE HABS CA-2904 Between Serena Court and Magdalana Avenue HABS CA-2904 Atascadero San Luis Obispo County California

PHOTOGRAPHS

WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA

FIELD RECORDS

HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY PACIFIC WEST REGIONAL OFFICE National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 333 Bush Street San Francisco, CA 94104 HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDING SURVEY

MERCEDES AVENUE STREETSCAPE

HABS No. CA-2904 Location: The original segment of Mercedes Avenue ran approximately from slightly south of the present day Serena Court near Stadium Park, north to Magdalena Avenue, in Atascadero, California. Atascadero 7.5’ USGS Quadrangle; Township 28 South, Range 12 East Mount Diablo Base Meridian. Latitude 35°29'29.50"N, Longitude 120°39'44.32"W (south); Latitude 35°29'42.43"N, Longitude 120°39'43.42"W (midpoint); Latitude 35°29'58.04"N, Longitude 120°39'39.77"W (north).

Present Owner: State of California

Present Use: California State Highway 41

Significance: The Mercedes Avenue Streetscape is significant as part of the original street network of the city of Atascadero. The streetscape is a contributing feature to the historic district known as: Atascadero Estates Residential District Plan (AERDP). The AERDP was determined eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places through consensus determination in 1987 under Criterion A, B, and C. The AERDP is one of the few extant examples in the United States of an executed original town plan that combined Beaux-Arts and Olmsteadian design principles, otherwise known as the Garden City model. The AERDP includes a skeletal street network, associated landscape features, and buildings and structures which were part of the original town plan. No houses were eligible for inclusion in the district.

Historians: Genevieve Entezari, Architectural Historian Margo Nayyar, Architectural Historian California Department of Transportation 1120 N Street Sacramento, CA 95814

Project Information: The Mercedes Avenue Streetscape recordation was completed as a mitigation measure for the State Route 41 Highway realignment project (Caltrans #05-SLO-41, P.M. 16.0/19.7) and was prepared as stipulated in the Memorandum of Agreement submitted to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended. Photographs were taken by Don Tateishi in 1994. Date: Completed November 2014 MERCEDES AVENUE STREETSCAPE HABS No. CA-2904 Page 2

Part I. Historical Information1

A. Physical History: The history of Mercedes Avenue falls under the context of the history of AERDP. The following information includes a brief history of the builders and components of AERDP.2

1. Date of erection/establishment: ca. 1914. Prior to Atascadero’s establishment, the area was part of Rancho Atascadero, one of the original Mexican land grants. After a number of ownership changes, the land was owned and used by John H. Henry for cattle ranching. In 1913, Henry sold 23,000 acres of land to Edward Gardner Lewis, who, shortly after acquiring the land, hired a team of experts including: architects, engineers, a soil expert, and construction workers, and surveyed the area for Atascadero’s town development. By early 1914, construction began on various civic buildings using materials readily available from the lumber and planing mill, and a brick plant “…capable of producing 50,000 bricks a day.”3

2. Architects:

Walter Danforth Bliss (8/23/1872-5/9/1956) was born in Nevada; he had three brothers and a sister. His parents relocated from Massachusetts to Carson City, Nevada in 1872 to pursue several money-making ventures. Bliss attended college at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in c. 1895-1898. Early in his career he worked as a draftsman for McKim, Mead and White, a prestigious architectural firm in New York City. Bliss moved to San Francisco in 1898, and partnered with William Baker Faville to form the architectural firm “Bliss and Faville.”

Bliss and Faville worked together until 1925. During their partnership they produced numerous prestigious works including the Panama-Pacific International Exposition – Palace of Education, the Oakland Public Library,4 the Bank of California in San Francisco,5 and the NRHP listed, Matson Lines Building in San Francisco.6 They also designed the Atascedro civic center and Printery.

1 The Memorandum of Agreement for this project was written prior to the establishment of HALS. In order to fulfill the requirements of the Memorandum of Agreement, HABS language is primarily used throughout document. However, because the site is a landscape, HALS language is included for descriptive purposes where applicable, particularly in Part II. 2 Unless otherwise noted, all information is derived, but extensively edited, from the unpublished report title: Historic Architectural Survey Report, State Route 41, Highway 101 to Salinas River, 05-SLO-41, P.M. 16.0/19.7, by John Snyder and Aaron Gallup, California Department of Transportation, March 1987. Footnotes in the HASR were used sparingly and generally not included in the original report; the sources used are in the bibliography. 3 William H. Lewis, Atascadero’s Colony Days, (Atascadero, California: The Treasure of El Camino Real, The Atascadero Historical Society, 1974), 3. 4Oakland Heritage Alliance, “List of Oakland City Landmarks (Number 48),” Oakland Heritage Alliance, accessed August 2014, http://www.oaklandheritage.org/oakland_landmarks.htm. 5 NoeHill in San Francisco, “San Francisco Landmarks: San Francisco Landmark #3,” NoeHill in San Francisco, accessed August 2014, http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf003.asp.

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In 1925, Bliss partnered with architect, Julian Stewart Fairweather, to form “Bliss and Fairweather.” They produced a small, but prestigious body of work, which included buildings such as the NRHP listed United States Main Post Office in Stockton.7

William Baker Faville (11/13/1866-12/15/1947) was born in San Andreas, California. He also attended MIT and worked as a draftsman at McKim, Mead and White, where he met Walter Bliss. Faville and Bliss moved to San Francisco together and opened their architectural firm, “Bliss and Faville.” In 1924, Faville applied for a passport to travel with his wife Ada Cockbaine to Europe for the “study of architecture and allied arts.”8 The following year, he and Bliss dissolved their partnership. He remained in San Francisco Bay Area for the rest of his life, and he died on December 15, 1947 in Marin County, California.9

John J. Roth of “Roth and Study,” in St. Louis, Missouri, was married to Edward Lewis’ niece. In Missouri, Roth served as Building Commissioner. Lewis wrote: “Mr. John Roth, formerly of the architectural firm of Roth & Studie [sic], St. Louis, came out to live with us, and designed the great store building and the schools, as well as most of the more than four hundred beautiful homes that have since been built.”

3. Planner, manager, builder/contractor:

Leon G. Sinnard, an urban planner, platted land in Atascadero for industrial, commercial, residential and civic uses. Little is known about Sinnard. He married Hazel Henderson in Oakland on June 4, 1907. At that time, Sinnard was a clerk for Southern Pacific’s general passenger department and was, “…considered one of the able and rising young men with the company.”10 By 1912, the San Francisco City Directory lists him as a “land expert.”11 Between 1921 and 1926 he managed the development of Rancho Santa Fe, a prosperous planned community in San Diego County.12

John F. Sullivan was the project’s general manager. No further information is known of Sullivan.

6 Listed in the National Register on November 29, 1995; National Register Number: 95001384. 7 Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD), “Walter Danforth Bliss,” accessed May 18, 2014, https://digital.lib.washington.edu/; Listed in the National Register on February 10, 1983; National Register Number: 83001236. 8 Ancestry.com, U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007, accessed May 18, 2014. 9 PCAD, “William Baker Faville,” accessed May 18, 2014, https://digital.lib.washington.edu/. 10 “Miss Hazel Henderson to Become Mrs. Sinnard at Noon Today,” The San Francisco Call, June 5, 1907, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. 11 Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory, “1912 San Francisco Directory,” accessed May 16, 2014, https://archive.org/. 12 The Rancho Santa Fe Association “History: Our Community”, The Rancho Santa Fe Association, accessed August 2014, http://www.rsfassociation.org/our-community/history/.

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F.O. Engstrom Construction Company built the Administration Building and the Printery in Atascadero. F.O. Engstrom was active in southern California during the early 1900s. In 1904, the company won a construction contract for a polytechnic high school in Los Angeles, as well as a bath house in Ocean Park, California.13 F.O. Engstrom also built the 1903 Riverside County Courthouse, which implemented Beaux-Arts sculptural design elements such as columns.14

4. Original and subsequent owners: John H. Henry sold Rancho Atascadero to Edward Gardner Lewis in 1913. Lewis used the land to develop the town of Atascadero. Mercedes Avenue is part of the town’s original, planned, curvilinear, streetscape design.

Lewis (3/4/1869-8/10/1950) was born in Winsted, Connecticut. He attended Trinity College in Hartford in c.1890-1892.15 In 1890, Lewis married Mabel G. Wellington in Baltimore and moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he worked as a salesman wholesaling pharmaceuticals.16 He later spent several years pursuing different entrepreneurial ventures, including the development of various insect-repellents. Lewis borrowed small amounts of money from numerous individuals in order to finance many of his business ventures.17 By 1913, he went bankrupt and moved to California with his wife in search for a new business venture.

Over the course of his entrepreneurial career, Lewis either purposefully or carelessly broke the law, and was sentenced to the McNeil Island Federal prison on May 1, 1928.18 He was eventually released and returned to his home in Atascadero where he died at the age 81. He is buried in Atascadero.

5. Original plans and construction: The AERDP used classical Beaux-Arts architecture for the civic buildings, but employed picturesque, Garden City planning designs for the residential neighborhoods. The original plan showed Mercedes Avenue as part of the residential development. It was part of a network of non-linear streets intended for houses, characterized by a rambling, curvilinear design in a natural setting.

13 “Bath house contract let: Carpenter work is awarded to F.O. Engstrom,” Los Angeles Herald, July 31, 1904, http://cdnc.ucr.edu/; “Secures High School Contract: F.O. Engstrom will Erect the Polytechnic,” Los Angeles Herald June 21, 1904, http://cdnc.ucr.edu/. 14 City of Riverside, “Landmarks of the City of Riverside,” City of Riverside, accessed May 16, 2014, http://www.riversideca.gov/historic/pdf/landmarks-web.pdf. 15 Ancestry.com. U.S. School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed May 27, 2014. 16 William Morley and Robert J. Wilkins, eds. E. G. Lewis: Friend or Fraud?, (Atascadero: Wilkins Creative Printing, 1967), 1. 17 Walter V. Woehlke, “The Champion Borrower of Them All: The Story of E.G. Lewis,” Sunset, September 1925, 58. 18 Morley and Wilkens, E. G. Lewis: Friend or Fraud?, 11.

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The AERDP was made up of several elements. The following is a physical description of the area according to the original plan:

a. Historic street network, 1914-c.1918 Constructing the AERDP street network was one of the earliest undertakings in Atascadero’s development; it was Lewis’ intention to construct the streets and key city buildings prior to any residential houses. All of the residential streets are a single, interconnected, contributing element. They have been improved and paved, but their alignments have not changed significantly from the original town plat.

The street network is divided into two distinct components: the formal axial Beaux-Arts plan known as “The Mall,” and the curvilinear streets of the residential areas. “The Mall” is the central element of the plan, and the residential streets wind through the landscape surrounding “The Mall.” The residential streets wind tightly through the hillside areas, but flow with broad, gentle curves on the valley floors. There are several short, relatively straight roadway sections in the southern part of this historic district. The platted rights of way are generally 40’-50’ wide in the residential areas.

b. Street trees, 1914-c. 191919 In September 1916, Lewis invited Leonard Coates of Morgan Hill Nurseries to lecture residents on suitable landscaping. Coates recommended certain types of trees for use along particular types of roadways. For instance, for broad avenues, Coates recommended elms, plane trees, black walnuts, and black locusts. For narrow residential streets, he recommended silver or scarlet maple, locust, western catalpa, mountain ash, silver poplar, and evergreens such as acacia, California pepper, coast redwood, Monterey pine, and Arizona cypress. Residential areas retained the native oak trees, but exotic species were planted to line streets outside of Atascadero’s naturally wooded areas. Specific tree planting examples include: an avenue of poplar trees (not extant) planted along Morro Road; plane trees planted along Atascadero and Tecorida Avenues;20 elm trees planted in the civic center area; and live oak trees along “The Mall” near El Camino Real.

Mature examples of Coates’ recommended tree plantings still line the streets of Atascadero, and include primarily elm, plane, and locust. Other scattered examples occur at the edge of the right-of-way throughout the district and include; elm, walnut, locust, eucalyptus and Monterey pines. Isolated remnants are often in alignment with large, evenly-spaced stumps, indicating removal of more extensive plantings.

19 Photographs published in 1919 in Atascadero Bulletin No. 9 verify the presence of many of the remaining landscape features described here. 20 Marguerite A. Travis, The Birth of Atascadero, (Atascadero, California: c.1960), 20 and 27.

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c. Magnolia Avenue Bridge21 Magnolia Avenue Bridge, also known as Atascadero Creek Bridge, was built in 1921, and spans Atascadero Creek at the north end of “The Mall.” The earth-filled, closed-spandrel, reinforced concrete arch bridge features a single 54’ arched span, and reinforced concrete window railings. The bridge is 23’ wide and carries two lanes of traffic. A cantilevered wooden walkway was added to the bridge’s west elevation in 1955. Warren B. Burch, the San Luis Obispo city engineer and County surveyor, designed the bridge,22 and in 1921, Appleton & Davis, a construction company in Atascadero, won the bid to construct the bridge for $9,927.23

The bridge serves as a formal gateway to and from the formal Beaux-Arts city center and the curvilinear streets of the residential neighborhoods to the north. The bridge is centered with the monumental Administration Building, creating an impressive ceremonial view appropriate to Beaux-Arts planning.

d. “The Mall,” 1914-1915 Designed by architect Walter Bliss, the formal Beaux Arts-style Mall is the heart of the AERDP. As the civic center of the community it features formal landscaping, planned vistas, and monumental civic buildings. Many of the buildings from the original AERDP were never constructed, but the landscaped axial street arrangement was fully realized. Because of Highway 101’s construction in the 1950s, “The Mall” has been divided into two sections by the highway’s embankment; however, both portions are still clearly evident and contribute to the historic district.

As originally built, “The Mall” north of El Camino Real consists of two parallel streets, “East Mall” and “West Mall,” which run roughly north-south. The streets are separated by expanses of lawn and landscaped parks. East and West Mall join at the northern end, creating a horseshoe-shaped loop at the intersection with Atascadero Creek and Magnolia Avenue Bridge. “The Mall” south of El Camino Real is a divided boulevard separated by a narrow landscaped median; it also centers on the Administration Building, providing a dramatic entry to the city center from the south.

e. Mall Park, ca. 1918 Mall Park is located between East Mall, West Mall, Palma Avenue and El Camino Real.

The park is a broad expanse of lawn with a fountain in a sunken garden. Mrs. Lewis, Edward Lewis’s wife, chose the now-mature deodar cedars and other

21 California Department of Transportation Bridge No. 49C0431, (old Bridge No. 49-0100). 22 “Bridges, Dams & Harbor Work,” Building and Engineering News, no. 24, July 9, 1921, 18, https://archive.org/details/buildingengineer2921cont. 23 “Bridges and Culverts,” Southwest Builder and Contractor, vol. 58, no. 3, July 15, 1921, 37.

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exotic tree species for the park’s landscaping.24 The park was designed and landscaped while the Administration Building was under construction.25 While the park itself is a contributor to the historic district, it also contains the following contributing elements:

i. Sunken gardens and fountain – This rectangular landscaped area is located at the center of the park. It is divided into grass sections by pathways, with an elaborate fountain in the center. The sunken garden and the fountain were in place by 1919.26

ii. Four fountains located at each corner of the Administration Building’s block. The fountains were built in 1918 by sculptor George Julian Zolnay, and consist of elongated quatrefoil pools, a statue of Pan, and a single jet of water striking a statuary group of waterfowl.27 The fountains (now defunct) are intact, but are used as planter beds.28

iii. The “Three Bathing Girls” is statue of three young women (also known as “The Wood Nymphs” and the “Wrestling Bacchantes”) frolicking on a pedestal.29 They were carved from a solid block of Carrarra marble for the 1903 St. Louis World’s Fair. It was the main exhibit of the Italian Government, which paid $27,000 to the sculptor, and it was considered one of the finest works of art in this country when it was exhibited at the fair. It was awarded a grand prize. Lewis purchased the 2,400 pound statue and shipped it to Atascadero as a gift for the Civic Center.30 It was installed on “The Mall” south of the Administration Building in 1916.

f. Administration Building, 1915-1918, 6500 Palma Avenue31 The Administration Building is the principal monument of the AERDP. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, on the California Inventory of Historic Resources in 1976, and is designated as State Historical

24 Travis, The Birth of Atascadero, 27. 25 Verified by photographic coverage of construction of the civic center which appears in the 1919 Atascadero Bulletin No. 9. 26 Ibid. 27Terry Barnett, “The Vision Reborn,” Atascadero Chamber of Commerce Business Reporter, September 2013, n.p, accessed March 27, 2014, http://www.atascaderochamber.org/. 28 As of March 2014, these fountains were restored as part of the retrofit project of the Administration Building. When workers began restoration they discovered that a mermaid with a conch shell issued the jet of water striking the waterfowl. See: Tonya Strickland, “Atascadero’s Historical Fountains Go Back to Their Youth,” The Tribune, August 1, 2013, accessed March 27, 2014, http://www.sanluisobispo.com/. 29 Barnett, “The Vision Reborn,” accessed March 27, 2014, http://www.atascaderochamber.org/. 30 Travis, The Birth of Atascadero, 18. 31 In 2013, the Administration Building underwent a major restoration. See: “Bernards Completes Repair and Mitigation of Atascadero City Hall; City Hall Celebrates Grand Opening and Re-opens to the Public,” Western Real Estate News, vol. 372-17, no. 1, September 2013, accessed March 27, 2014, http://www.bernards.com/.

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Landmark Number 958. Walter Bliss designed the Administration Building. The building originally housed the administration offices and the Chamber of Commerce, as well as a bank, post office, water company, telephone exchange and exhibit space. The Administration Building was eventually used as a boy’s school and dormitory; and later as the local library, museum and city administrative offices.

The monumental, four-story building is a free interpretation of Italian Renaissance design. The building has a cross-shaped ground plan, and is constructed of reinforced concrete with a brick and terra cotta exterior. There are four similar facades and a central rotunda, divided internally into upper and lower sections, and crowned by a shallow Byzantine dome covered with red tile. The principal entrances on the north and south facades feature six large Ionic columns supporting the third story, creating a recessed portico which is accessed by a short flight of ten full-width steps. The entrance design provides a grand ceremonial feel. Vertical emphasis of the buildings is provided by the high central Roman arch which creates a Palladian effect. The east and west elevations share the design of the north and south facades, but lack the recessed porticos and broad steps, and the columns are engaged. Elaborate decorative terra cotta highlights the Italian Renaissance character of the building.

Alterations to the interior consist of several bathroom additions, partitions, and a small caretaker apartment. Exterior alterations are limited and include modern metal and glass entrance doors.

g. Printery, 1915-1917, 6351 Olmeda Avenue The Printery was the only rotogravure press west of the Mississippi at the time it was built.32 The Printery produced Lewis’ magazines and promotional literature for Atascadero, as well as supplements for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. A railroad spur served the building directly, accommodating the large volume of incoming newsprint and outgoing products. The Printery is now used as a Masonic Hall.

The two-story, Italian Renaissance-style, Printery has a rectangular ground plan, and a moderately-pitched hipped roof. The main entrance is centered on the south façade and features a Roman arch supported on two, simple, Doric columns; the arch is ornamented with elaborate terra cotta. The recessed doorway is accessed by a short flight of steps. A prominent terra cotta belt course divides the first and second stories. Windows are separated by brick pilasters with simple terra cotta capitals.

32 William H. Lewis, Atascadero’s Colony Days, (Atascadero, California: The Treasure of El Camino Real, 1974), 11.

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The interior contained printing equipment on the ground floor, with offices located on the second story. The entrance lobby features original murals by Ralph Holmes, a Chicago artist who relocated to Atascadero during its first years; the murals depict stylized oak trees on a pastel background, and were in place by 1919.33

A single-story, hip-roofed annex was added off the north elevation in 1917, and contained the bindery and stock room. Compatible in styling and materials, the annex significantly increased the working space of the facility in response to the rapid increase in the demand for high quality printing.

The printer was determined to be individually eligible for the NRHP on December 1, 2000.34

h. Atascadero, 1919-1921, 5575 Hospital Drive Hospital construction began in 1919, just east of, and overlooking, the civic center. The hospital opened in 1921. Employees of the county had a monthly one dollar wage deduction for complete medical and hospital care.35 Later, the hospital was used as part of a boys school. The county later took it over to use as a public hospital. The building has been altered over the years; a large modern addition was constructed in front, and the portico, with its arches enclosed, now serves to connect the old and new sections of the building. The building has also been lengthened on the south end; this alteration continues the earlier styling and was probably an early addition. Several small, modern shed additions have been constructed at the rear of the building. In spite of the alterations, the original hospital is still clearly recognizable, and although its integrity has been compromised, it still contributes to the district. The architect is unknown.

i. Federated Church Building, 1920-1921, 6225 Atascadero Mall Street The Federated Church Building, also known as the Community Center, was the social heart of Atascadero during the 1920s, and contained a reception room, library, auditorium, billiard and pool room, gymnasium, lunch room, large swimming pool with lockers and showers, and club rooms used by the Masons, the Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, and like organizations. Motion pictures were shown in the auditorium twice a week and this room was the scene of amateur theatricals, musicals, and dances. More than a thousand people could find entertainment in the Community Building at one time.” It was also the center of religious activity, where numerous sects worshiped together as a single Federated Church. The architect is unknown. As of 2014,

33 Verified by photographic coverage of construction of the civic center which appears in the 1919 Atascadero Bulletin No. 9. 34 Marjorie R. Mackey, “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Atascadero Printery,” accessed August 2014, http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/. 35 Lewis, Atascadero’s Colony Days, 17.

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the church building had been incorporated into a larger church complex and had been heavily altered.

j. Stone masonry retaining wall, ca. 1916, north side of Palma Avenue between Rosario Avenue and Traffic Way This masonry wall of local stone appears to be associated with the construction of the original Atascadero street network. It is composed of squared stone blocks set in thick mortar with a concrete cap. It stands roughly four to five feet high, and approximately 150 feet long. It follows the curve of Palma Avenue which skirts the base of the adjacent wooded hillside.

k. Stadium Park Stadium Park is a 29-acre tract of woodlands on the southern slopes of Pine Mountain. Located just one-half mile northeast of the Civic Center, Lewis envisioned the area as a center for outdoor community events and functions. Its topography provided natural acoustics, and was an ideal setting for an outdoor amphitheater.36 It became an extension of the cultural and recreational life of Atascadero during the 1914-1924 period. Many early accounts of community gatherings held at the site described the natural beauty of the setting.

Stadium Park consists of natural landscaping, and is not a developed or landscaped park. A short, unpaved access road from Mercedes and Magnolia Avenues into the park is part of the original AERDP, and survives unchanged. The road is NRHP eligible, Stadium Park is not. The park featured a wooded amphitheater with a platform around a large oak tree, and benches along the hillside.37 The benches have since been removed.

l. Planned but never built America’s entry into World War I halted all non-essential building. The original AERDP included plans to build:

i. An opera house, located in the civic center opposite the Administration Building.

ii. A power plant.

iii. Permanent residence apartments. Each unit would be held for the life of the owner. The purchase price for an apartment would have included use of all facilities as well as the cost of burial and a cemetery plot. The Permanent Residence Apartment Corporation, which

36 Lewis, Atascadero’s Colony Days, 5. 37 Lewis, Atascadero’s Colony Days, 7.

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included Walter D. Bliss on its Board of Directors, would have operated the facility.

iv. A university. Free courses, including horticulture and agriculture, would have been available for Atascadero residents. Plans for the university included experimental gardens and nurseries, a dairy, and a creamery.

v. A Woman’s Republic Building. It would have housed the headquarters of the national organization, and was to be located between the public school and the university, within the civic center. The Woman’s Republic offices were housed in the Administration Building instead.

7. Changes and additions: Mercedes Avenue was originally an unpaved, curvilinear, residential road within a planned neighborhood designed in a picturesque, natural setting. The road designed for local, residential traffic, was incorporated as part of Highway 41 in July 2000. The Highway 41 realignment created a visual and partial physical division of the civic center and residential neighborhood on the west, and Stadium Park on the east.

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B. Historical Context:

The AERDP combines the contrasting traditions of Beaux-Arts classicism and Olmsteadian picturesque style, known as the Garden City model. The formal rhythm of classicism plays out in the District’s civic buildings, and the curvilinear streets among a natural setting epitomizes the Olmsteadian design. The AERDP is a rare American example of a functional early twentieth century Garden City. The Garden City Model The AERDP is highly significant for its implementation of Beaux-Arts architecture in civic buildings, and its picturesque Olmsteadian residential areas. It is one of the few examples realized in the United States. In the early 20th century, Beaux-Arts planning and design was prominent in American urban planning. In a large part, its prominence was due to the Beaux- Arts design of the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, planned by Daniel Hudson Burnham, of D.H. Burnham & Company. Burnham, an influential and charismatic American architect, was renowned for his Beaux-Arts architecture which dominated Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.38 He designed the exposition with a Beaux-Arts plan with strong cross-axial emphasis, modular design, and classic architectural style with coordinated detail. Following this exposition, Beaux-Arts planning dominated urban design across the county, as reflected in proposed city plans for San Francisco (1902-05), Chicago (1906), Buffalo (1901), St. Louis (1904), Seattle (1909), and San Diego (1915). At the same time, the picturesque Olmsteadian design principles were highly popular in residential and park planning. These natural and picturesque design principles originated from Frederick Law Olmstead’s park designs as early as the 1850s in New York. Olmstead brought the tradition to California in the 1880s after designing the grounds for Stanford University. Also in the 1880s, John McLaren perpetuated the Olmstead tradition after designing the Golden Gate Park. By the turn of the 20th century, many residential plans across the country incorporated the curvilinear street layout typical of Olmsteadian parks. Thus, the stage was set for combining these two strong, but divergent, planning traditions. In 1898, Ebenezer Howard advocated his Garden City model design which included both the Beaux-Arts and Olmsteadian design principles. Howard intended his Garden City to be a refuge from the loneliness of city life, yet compensating for the civic deficiencies of rural life; the concept combined the social advantages of the city with the healthful conditions of the country. Howard’s Garden City model was realized in 1908 with Unwin and Parker’s Hampstead Garden suburb located just outside London. Hampstead Garden, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, included a Beaux-Arts civic center with classically-styled buildings set in a formal axial plan, as well as picturesque Tudor Revival residences amid winding streets adjoining the city center. Thus, Hampstead Garden brought together the Beaux-Arts and Olmsteadian town planning traditions in a pre-planned and self- contained suburb. Other English developments quickly followed Hampstead Garden. By 1913, Edward G. Culpin, in The Garden City Movement Up-to-Date, analyzed 33 Garden

38 PCAD, “Daniel Hudson Burnham” accessed May 22, 2014, https://digital.lib.washington.edu/.

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City developments in Britain, distinguishing between garden city, garden suburb and garden village. More importantly, these new planning concepts – particularly Hampstead Garden Suburb and Gidea Park – received heavy attention in American architectural journals of the period. The concept of community planning and building within 19th century United States typically focused on either company towns, or religious or utopian communities. In the early 20th century, two of the earliest Garden City plans were indeed company towns and included Ajo, Arizona (Kenyon and Maine, architects) and Tyrone, New Mexico (Bertram Goodhue, architect). However, Atascadero was neither a company town, nor a religious or utopian community; it was, in fact, a speculative real estate plan of Edward Gardner Lewis.

Atascadero’s Founder, Edward Gardner Lewis Lewis was known as a talented and creative businessman and publisher, but his legacy is also clouded by many failed and dubious business ventures. He was the subject of various newspaper articles, magazine stories and books. Some testify to his remarkable character, while others passionately argue of his reprehensible moral fiber. Like Lewis, Atascadero, his creation, is hailed as a remarkable Utopian endeavor, as well as the outcome of a manipulative scheme.39 Lewis entered Trinity College in 1886, after which he began his multi-dimensional career as an entrepreneur which included sales, banking, publishing, and real-estate development.

Between 1888 -1898, Lewis launched five businesses in diverse fields including bug repellents, candy and medicine; all failed. At the same time, his chain letter business ended with a Post Office indictment for fraud. Between 1899-1907, he published The Winner in St. Louis; in 1901 he bought Woman’s Farm Journal; and in 1902 he changed the name of The Winner to Woman’s National Weekly. In 1907, the Post Office charged Lewis for fraud for abusing the second class postal rate for his magazine shipments.40

Lewis also dabbled in real estate and sales throughout his life. In 1902, under the name of the University Heights Realty Company, he purchased 85 acres adjoining the St. Louis, Missouri, on the western limits of St. Louis University. He developed the land as University City and was elected the city’s first mayor. Between 1909 and 1913, Lewis published his projected plans for a model city in Woman’s National Weekly. 41

In 1904, Lewis launched the Peoples United States Bank which relied on receiving and paying out deposits exclusively by mail for rural areas; he was charged in 1905 for this operation. Lewis somehow evaded indictment , and was known as “the man who beat the United States Government.”42 His received national attention during the litigation process.

39 Travis, The Birth of Atascadero; Morley and Wilkins, E.G. Lewis—Fraud of Friend; Lewis, Atascadero’s Colony Days; Mazie Adams and Marjorie Mackey, Recalling Atascadero, California. Volume 2 (Atascadero: n.d. [c.1980]); Woehlke, “The Champion Borrower of Them All,” Sunset; Sidney Morse, The Siege of University City, (Missouri: University City Publishing Company, 1912). 40 Woehlke, “Champion Borrower of them All;” Morley and Wilkins, E.G. Lewis—Fraud of Friend, 3. 41 Woehlke, “Champion Borrower of them All.” 42 Morse, The Siege of University City, ix.

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Lewis may have evaded indictment, but his business losses resulted in his 1912 bankruptcy; yet, he maintained many fervent investors. In 1913, Lewis relocated to California with $2,000 in borrowed money, and plans to build a Garden City community. He and his wife traveled throughout California searching for land to build a town suitable to accommodate a community with automobiles.43 He ultimately purchased a 23,000 acre tract known as Atascadero Rancho, from John H. Henry. At the time of the purchase, Lewis remembered a single dirt road through the estate, one house and some sheds, occupied by Henry, five “vaqueros,” and a “Chinaman to wait on him.” In response to Henry’s asking price of $1,000,000, Lewis wired friends back east for $5,000 to secure a 30-day option. He then flooded friends and others with promotional descriptions, raising $250,000 in 19 days. Borrowing almost directly from Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City credo, Lewis proclaimed his Atascadero motto to be: “All the advantages of country life with city conveniences.”44

AERDP Development Selecting his team to develop Atascadero, Lewis hired Professor Harry Thomas (“H.T.”) Cory as Engineer-in-Chief; University of California professor Edward James Wickson as horticultural and agricultural advisor; Walter D. Bliss, of the San Francisco firm Bliss and Faville, as architect for the civic center and the Printery building;45 John J. Roth of Roth & Study in St. Louis, as architect for Atascadero Inn; L.G. Sinnard, an urban planner, allotted land for industrial, commercial, residential and civic uses; and John F. Sullivan as the project’s general manager.46

Lewis quickly got the attention of the local press. In November 1913, Architect and Engineer of California published “A Model Civic Center or the Woman’s Republic Community, Atascadero.” This article described the town plan, with its civic center and residential areas on one side of Atascadero Creek. Atascadero Creek was the dividing line between the development and the industrial area; the two areas would have been joined by a broad boulevard extending to the state highway where elaborate gates would mark the entrance to Atascadero. Italian-style architecture, chosen for civic buildings, was “…best adapted to the brilliant coloring of the native flowers, shrubs and foliage, and the clear southern sunlight.”47 Lewis knew the value of tourists. The article noted that the Chamber of Commerce in the Administration Building would exhibit the products of Atascadero, “…since tens of thousands of tourists pass through the property over the great state highway, and will stop for a greater or less time at the Civic Center.”48

43 Adams and Mackey, Recalling Atascadero, 3. 44 Travis, The Birth of Atascadero, 5. 45 While Bliss and Faville are both credited as architects for AERDP, Faville’s name is occasionally lacking in some documentation. Therefore, his role in the AERDP is not entirely clear. 46 Lewis, Atascadero’s Colony Days, 5. 47 “A Model Civic Center for the Woman’s Republic Community, Atascadero,” The Architect and Engineer 35 November 1913, 69. 48 “A Model Civic Center…,” The Architect and Engineer, 70 and 74.

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Forming Atascadero Estates Incorporated, in which he owned 87 ½ percent of the stock, Lewis purchased 16,000 unsold acres of Atascadero land; control was vested in the Anglo- California Trust Company of San Francisco, which held a $750,000 mortgage on the purchase. Under a plan developed by Oscar Willett, Lewis’ attorney, Atascadero Estates, Inc. bought the claims of its creditors for Real Estate Receipts which would be applied to any parcel of Atascadero land at up to 80% of the price, with the balance to be paid in cash. The receipts, if not used within three years, became worthless.

Final plats for the project were filed on October 21, 1914, and designing the civic center began.49 Bliss and Faville were familiar with Beaux-Arts architecture from their time as draftsman with McKim, Mead and White, one of the pre-eminent architectural firms in the United States with a strong background in Beaux-Arts planning and design. Bliss was also a member of the Board of Directors and Commissioners of the Colony Holding Corporation. As Commissioner of Architecture, he had final approval of all businesses and residential plans. Bulletin No. 4 of the California Colony of the American Woman’s Republic stated, “Mr. Bliss will at all times be pleased to render any assistance possible to those intending to build in the colony, suggesting improvements, making plans and undertaking the supervision of the construction of any houses or bungalows and rendering any other reasonable assistance.”

Originally, Lewis wanted the civic center and public buildings completed before any residential construction took place. In actuality, Lewis found it necessary to promote lot sales and residential construction from the outset to finance the project. The costs of roads, water systems, and the civic center were applied to the costs of the lots in the subdivision. The design plan detailed the civic center surrounded by the residential areas, with the two encircled by orchards and agricultural estates. The residential sections were selected from the least cultivable land. The business section adjoined the civic center, and contained factories, warehouses, and processing plants for Atascadero’s agricultural products. The business section was temporarily placed on Administration Park along Traffic Way, but never moved to its intended location along the railroad. The parks and reserves, totaling 5,000 acres throughout Atascadero, were located on land entirely unsuited for cultivation, and along streams and springs.

By mid-1915, construction for many of the civic buildings were well underway, and the F.O. Engstrum Company of Los Angeles received a $200,000 construction contract for the Administration building and the Printery. The two-story brick Printery had its own railroad spur connecting it with the Southern Pacific main line. At a later unknown date, its entrance hall and great staircase were painted with elaborate murals of local scenery by Chicago artist Ralph Holmes, who had moved to Atascadero.

Bliss and Faville busily prepared plans for a 3-4 story hotel, power house, and opera house (none of which were built). By late 1915 and early 1916, a large number of builders and

49 Travis, The Birth of Atascadero, 5-6.

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carpenters worked to construct many of the early residences in the area. Later in 1916, work began on the Department Store, Atascadero Inn, and the school.

In 1916, the Printery was the first civic building completed. The first issue of the Atascadero News was printed on January 22, 1916. The Department Store (known as La Plaza) and Atascadero Inn (on the second floor of La Plaza) opened on March 4, 1917. The store eventually failed and the building was converted entirely to an Inn in 1925; the building burned in 1934. The Administration Building opened in June 1918, and contained the offices of the Colony Holding Corporation, a bank, telephone exchange, insurance company, water company, seed company, post office, cashiers, and information on Atascadero.

In 1917, the elementary school and Printery annex were completed. During this time the Printery contained the only rotogravure plant in California, and handled printing for special supplements of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. Lewis published the Illustrated Review from the Printery starting in 1917. Governor William E. Stevens (1917- 1923) chose Atascadero as the site for the annual Fourth of July speech. The town even boasted a motion picture theater on Traffic Way. A building boom in 1919 followed, with additional houses, a lumber mill (converted from the brick plant which had furnished brick for the civic center buildings), and the hospital. The town included over 70 miles of streets and roads, and by 1917, the company had expended $2,000,000 on the development of Atascadero, though it is not clear if this figure included the initial $1,000,000 cost of the 23,000 acre estate.

Early promotional articles in Woman’s National Weekly and the Illustrated Review over the next few years described Atascadero’s development in glowing terms. Lewis boasted of the area’s 1,000 foot altitude, nearby mountain range, and its average annual rainfall of 26 inches. He also noted that the land had been preserved since its earliest days as a Spanish land grant, explaining that the name meant “place of many springs” or “much water” in Spanish. These articles boasted of the expected 20,000 to 30,000 person population, and illustrated the emerging civic center, with the Department Store, Printery, school, and Administration Building. The holding company owned all of the public buildings. Also shown were modest houses ranging from $1,500 to $5,000. By 1917, approximately 200 houses had been built in the 2,400, residentially designated, acreage surrounding the civic center. Houses conformed to local restrictions, as administered by Bliss in his role as Commissioner of Architecture. These early examples were modest in comparison to the projected $25,000 mansions.

The San Francisco Chronicle publicized Atascadero in 1917, with the article entitled “Building an Empire at Atascadero.” The article reported the three year transformation of the 40 square mile area from pristine wilderness into a model community. The article also touted the three mile beach front located only sixteen miles from Atascadero. It further claimed that 3,000 families had purchased homes, with another 700 to 1,000 under construction (although only 200 houses had been built by 1917).

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Between 1917-1920 lot sales and residential construction were brisk. People living in Atascadero established a Federated Church where 14 different sects worshiped together. The Atascadero Mercantile Company operated the Department Store as a cooperative, and part of its profits reverted to each share holder. In order to finance continued civic center development, part of the price of each lot was prorated for this purpose. The future looked bright for Atascadero until development halted as America entered World War I.

“…blasted hopes and shattered dreams” America’s entry into World War I induced a government halt on all non-essential building. Because of this, the opera house, power plant, and residential apartments were never built. Industrial building also ceased, including a steel mill and a proposed fiber cork factory, which were needed due to a wartime shortage of European corks. A local doll factory opened during the war, eventually branching out with a plant in Vancouver, Canada, before failing. A dehydrating plant operated with a wartime government contract, but this too failed due to: low prices after the war, bad crop production, and mismanagement. A small portion of Atascadero platted for agricultural estates was never developed due to WWI. This area was subsequently sold during Lewis’ bankruptcy and gradually developed as a general residential area over the years. A 1963 aerial photo of Atascadero shows that the agricultural estates were largely undeveloped. Although later development followed almost exactly the street pattern of the original plat, it did not retain the intended historic purpose of self-sufficient agricultural estates.

In 1925, Sunset magazine described Atascadero as “…a community with a bold front hiding cobwebs, blasted hopes and shattered dreams.” By this time there were 300-400 families residing in Atascadero, mostly elderly. The Printery was barely functioning, and the cannery and fruit drying plant had closed. The hotel and department store continued operations. However, “The four story administration building in the heart of the civic center…was the Mecca of men and women walking slowly and with drooping shoulders to see the attorney for the creditors.” Lewis’ plan was dying, and was taking with it those who could ill afford the cost.

While the Sunset article dramatized the forlorn condition of Atascadero and its residents, it did adequately describe Lewis’ financial condition. He was buried in debt and could not pay his creditors. In Lewis’ autobiography he states that Atascadero was a financial drain due to the war time building halt. He was forced to turn to other ventures including mineral and oil excavation in hopes to pay Atascadero debts. Lewis also continued pursuing other real-estate development ventures.

In the early 1920s, he attempted to purchase 16,000 acres in Palos Verdes, 30 miles from Los Angeles. In 1923, using his mail order lists, he attempted to raise $5,000,000 to buy the land. Again he enlisted an impressive planning staff to design and build another model Garden City. Lewis even offered the University of California Regents $1,000,000 plus a grant of 1,000 acres to relocate the Southern Branch of the University (today U.C.L.A.) to Palos Verdes. However, by 1924, Lewis’ creditors caught up with him and he filed for bankruptcy with 11,000 claims totaling $13,000,000. By 1925, the Palos Verdes project, reduced to one-

MERCEDES AVENUE STREETSCAPE HABS No. CA-2904 Page 18 fifth its original size, was taken from him and placed in the hands of conservative local business men. Lewis was convicted of using the U.S. mail to defraud and was sentenced to Federal prison at McNeil Island, Washington.

In the end, Atascadero’s civic, residential, and agricultural development was never fully realized. Ironically, Atascadero’s initial misfortunes are in large part responsible for the high degree of integrity that remains of the original plan. The population only reached Lewis’ original intent within the past 20 years. Furthermore, the town was never subject to redevelopment or urban renewal pressures common during the 1950s and 1960s. As of 1987, before the Highway 41 realignment project, physical evidence of the original plan remained largely intact. The streets of the AERDP, many of which retain significant vestiges of original landscaping, remain almost entirely as platted; the civic center with its Mall, formal landscaping, Printery, and monumental Administration Building, remains the most obvious manifestation of Lewis’ dream. A detailed comparison between the original plat and the present-day street map of Atascadero shows a remarkably high direct correlation, confirming that the design of the original plan was almost totally executed, although many of the streets in the outlying areas were constructed in more recent years. Also, overlaying the original plan with a map of the present city shows that a surprisingly small amount of the original street network was actually destroyed by the construction of Highway 101 in the late 1950s.

With regard to its Western Garden City contemporaries, Tyrone, New Mexico disappeared as its open-pit copper mine expanded to include the town site; Ajo, Arizona remains largely intact, though a large number of the residences have been demolished, and the continued existence of the town appears to be in doubt with the closing of mining and railroad operations. Thus, the comparative rarity of Atascadero’s intact plan assumes increased significance. Beaux-Arts and City Beautiful planning proliferated on paper early in the twentieth century, but very few of the plans were ever implemented. The significance of the AERDP is unquestionable. It is one of the very few Garden City plans ever executed in the western United States.

The AERDP as a Historic District The AERDP is unconventional for a historic district. It consists primarily of a street network with relatively few historic buildings, and no residential buildings. While houses are indeed present, they are not considered part of the eligible historic district. Generally, the primary focus of a historic district is its buildings, with streets and associated landscape elements somewhat secondary. In the case of the AERDP, however, the resource is the executed town plan itself – the street network is the primary focus; historic buildings and surviving landscape elements are included as contributing elements. According to the staff at the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) a number of precedents exist for registration of significant town plans, which may or may not include the associated. The AERDP used Garden City planning principles, one of the very few such examples in the western United States. However, it was slow to develop after completion of the initial street layout. By 1919, Atascadero consisted of a large network of streets with a small number of pivotal public and

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commercial buildings. While over 200 residences were scattered throughout the area, none of them are included in the eligible historic district.50

The National Register of Historic Places staff advised the Caltrans lead historian in circa 1987, that the resource be treated like a skeleton. This “skeleton” encompasses the planned street network, associated landscape features, and those buildings and structures which were built as components of the plan, as described in Part I, Section 5, of this report.

Part II. Physical Information for the Mercedes Avenue Streetscape

Originally, Mercedes Avenue was a dirt and gravel packed, narrow, rural, residential roadway. Its roughly north-south alignment began at approximately Serena Court to the south, and joined with Magdalena Avenue to the north. The roadway curved through the hillside where wild grasses and native oak trees lined the embankment. There was no shoulder, and various private driveways extended from the roadway. It was approximately 0.6 miles long. The rural character of Mercedes Avenue was altered after the Highway 41 realignment in 2000. It was lengthened southwards starting at El Camino Real to the south, and ending in approximately the same location, at Capistrano Avenue to the north. The roadway was improved as a two-lane, concrete paved highway with concrete shoulders and storm drainage. Sound barrier walls were added along the highway at the more densely populated areas. At these areas, natural grasses and trees have been removed and replaced with gravel and shrubbery landscaping. Metal guard rails line additional areas along the highway. Some private driveways still extend from the highway, Magdalena and Magnolia Avenues, residential roadways, no longer connect with Mercedes Avenue. It now measure approximately 1.1 miles in length. The description given below concerns the original alignment of Mercedes Avenue prior to the Highway 41 realignment.

A. Landscape Character and Description Summary: The Mercedes Avenue Streetscape is significant as part of the original street network of the city of Atascadero. The streetscape is a contributing feature to the historic district known as: Atascadero Estates Residential District Plan (AERDP). The AERDP was determined eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places as one of the few extant examples in the United States of an executed original town plan that combined Beaux-Arts and Olmsteadian design principles, otherwise known as the Garden City model. The AERDP includes a skeletal street network, associated landscape features, and buildings and structures which were part of the original plan. No houses are eligible for inclusion in the district.

While the ambitious 23,000 acre total development was impressive on paper, it was only partially realized. The civic center with civic and commercial buildings, parks, and a

50 In 1994, a house was found individually eligible for the NRHP, not as a contributor to the AERDP. Located at 6905 Country Club Drive, it was built in 1930, well after the AERDP period of significance. This house was relocated as a result of the realignment of California State Highway 41.

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small industrial area, as well as, residential construction, and agricultural development was never fully completed within the time frame that the town’s founder, Edward G. Lewis, anticipated. However, many aspects of the community were completed including the picturesque Beaux-Arts style civic buildings, parks, planned vistas, and curvilinear street networks, which encapsulated the basic tenets of the Garden City philosophy, “All the advantages of country life with city conveniences.”51

B. Character Defining Features

1. Natural Features

a. Topography: Mercedes Avenue runs along the western slope of Pine Mountain. Slight undulation is present throughout the alignment, but the roadway maintains a mostly even elevation. Private driveways extend downhill to the west or uphill to the east. Parts of the roadway have suffered from erosion due to the natural watershed.

b. Vegetation: Wild grasses cover the sloping hills on the east and west embankments. Native deciduous and evergreen trees, especially oak, are prevalent throughout the alignment. Shrubbery appears sporadically as a natural, as well as planted, part of the landscape.

2. Designed Features

a. Land Patterns: i. Circulation: Mercedes Avenue is a dirt and gravel packed, narrow, rural, residential roadway. It has a roughly north-south alignment, and curves along the western slope of Pine Mountain. There is no shoulder, or area for pedestrian traffic. Vehicle traffic moves slowly along the roadway, and because of the narrow roadway, two-way traffic is done carefully. Residences appear infrequently in comparison to other residential roadways within the AERDP. From Mercedes Avenue, various private driveways extended either uphill to the east, or downhill to the west. Houses along Mercedes Avenue are either located directly adjacent or deeply setback from the roadway. Residential properties appear to be large and incorporate natural landscape features.

ii. Buildings: The Atascadero Hospital (1921) is located on the western, downhill slope of Mercedes Avenue. It is located at the southern end of the roadway. Residential development along Mercedes Avenue spans several decades from c.1920 – c.1980, though most of the residences appear to have been built between 1940-1960.World War I

51 Travis, The Birth of Atascadero, 5.

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and misfortunes surrounding Edward G. Lewis disrupted construction and delayed much of the residential development in the area. There are no structures located along Mercedes Avenue. iii. Small scale elements: Barbed wire, white picket, and post and rail are examples of fences used to define property boundaries along Mercedes Avenue. Other elements include telephone poles and wires, and mailbox posts.

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Part III. Sources of Information

Bridge Inventory (Reinforced Concrete Arch Bridges, San Luis Obispo County). California Department of Transportation, Office of Environmental Analysis, 1120 N Street, Sacramento, California.

California Historical Landmarks: San Luis Obispo. Office of Historic Preservation website. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21484 (accessed May 28, 2014).

California Historical Resource Inventory No. N536, 1977.

California Historical Resources Commission, Meeting Minutes, 1982.

Historic Bridge Survey, San Luis Obispo County. California Department of Transportation, Office of Environmental Analysis, 1120 N Street, Sacramento, California. (accessed May 2014).

National Register of Historic Places, 1979-1987.

Snyder, John and Aaron Gallup. Historic Architectural Survey Report, State Route 41, Highway 101 to Salinas River, 05-SLO-41, P.M. 16.0/19.7. March 1987.Unpublished report on file at Caltrans, Cultural Studies Office, Division of Environmental Analysis, 1120 N Street, Sacramento.

Pavlik, Robert C. Supplemental Historic Architectural Survey Report, for the Residence at 6905 Country Club Drive, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo County, California, 05-SLO-41, P.M. 15.8/17.1, 05-225-345201, December 1994. Unpublished report on file at Caltrans, Cultural Studies Office, Division of Environmental Analysis, 1120 N Street, Sacramento.

Books Allen, James B. The Company Town in the American West. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press,1966.

Choay, Francois. The Modern City: Planning in the 19th Century. New York: Georges Braziller, 1969.

Culpin, Ewart G. The Garden City Movement Up-to-Date. London: The Garden Cities and Town Planning Association, 1913.

Garner, John S. The Model Company Town: Urban Design through Private Enterprise in Nineteenth-Century New England. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press , 1984.

Hines, Thomas S. Burnham of Chicago. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Howard, Ebenezer. Garden Cities of To-Morrow. Reprint. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1965.

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Meakin, Budgett. Model Factories and Villages: Ideal Conditions of Labor and Housing. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905.

Oliver, Richard. Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1983.

Pamphlets Adams, Mazie and Marjorie Mackey. Recalling Atascadero, California, Volume 2. Atascadero: The Treasure of El Camino Real, n.d. [c. 1980].

Atascadero Historical Society Museum pamphlet (sepia-tone photo of Atascadero’s Administration Building on cover: “California Registered Landmark No. 958, Listed in the National Registry of Historic Places”). On file at the Caltrans Transportation Library, 1120 N Street, Sacramento.

Lewis, E. E.G. Lewis, A Personal Statement. Atascadero, n.d. [c. 1923].

Lewis, E. Palos Verdes. Los Angeles and Atascadero: n.d. [c. 1921].

Lewis, William H. Atascadero’s Colony Days. Atascadero: The Treasure of El Camino Real, 1974.

Morley, William and Robert J. Wilkins, eds. E. G. Lewis: Friend or Fraud? Atascadero: Wilkins Creative Printing, 1967.

Permanent Residence Apartments, Atascadero, n.d. [c. 1914].

Travis, Marguerite A. The Birth of Atascadero. n.d. [c.1960].

Periodicals “A Model City.” Architect and Engineer of California 41, no. 2 (May 1915): 109.

“A Model Civic Center for the Women’s Republic Community, Atascadero.” The Architect and Engineer of California 35, no. 1 (November 1913): 69-74.

“Atascadero Estates.” Atascadero Bulletin No. 9 (1919): n.p.

Barnett, Terry. “The Vision Reborn,” Atascadero Chamber of Commerce Business Reporter, (September 2013): n.p., http://www.atascaderochamber.org/files/newsletters/ONLINEFORM_ACOC%20Septem ber%202013_web%20%282%29.pdf.

“Bernards Completes Repair and Mitigation of Atascadero City Hall; City Hall Celebrates Grand

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Opening and Re-opens to the Public,” Western Real Estate News 372-17, no. 1 (September 2013): 1-2, http://www.bernards.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/WREN- Bernards-Completes-Repair-and-Mitigation-of-Atascadero-City-Hall-September- 2013.pdf.

“Bridges and Culverts,” Southwest Builder and Contractor 58, no. 3 (July 15, 1921): 37.

California Colony of the American Woman’s Republic Bulletin nos. 1-6, St. Louis and Los Angeles: February 1913-October 1914.

“Getting the Best Out of Life.” The Illustrated Review 6, no. 34 (June 1919): 28-29.

“More Buildings for Atascadero Colony.” Architect and Engineer of California 46, no.3 (September 1916): 127.

Woehlke, Walter V. “The Champion Borrower of Them All: The Story of E.G. Lewis.” Sunset Magazine 55, (September-December 1925): n.p.

Newspapers “Atascadero the Beautiful.” San Francisco Chronicle, January 14, 1920.

“Atascadero Homecoming.” Atascadero News, September 24, 1953.

“Building an Empire at Atascadero.” San Francisco Chronicle, January 17, 1917.

“Miss Hazel Henderson to Become Mrs. Sinnard at Noon Today.” The San Francisco Call, June 5, 1907. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.

Strickland, Tonya. “Atascadero’s Historical Fountains Go Back to Their Youth.” The Tribune, August 1, 2013. http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2013/08/01/2612456/atascaderos- historical-fountains.html.

Maps and Aerial Photographs Aerial Photographs held at Geometrics Unit, California Department of Transportation, 1120 N Street, Sacramento: V-Slo 1-3 and V-Slo 1-4, February 18, 1963. A.S.C. No. 8540-2 (05-SLO-101, P.M. 42.5/55.5), July 31, 1984. A.S.C. No. 57-8640-2 (05-SLO-41, P.M. 10.0/22.0), October 11, 1985.

Document 5-0000-494, As Built Plans for construction of Highway 101 through Atascadero, dated November 30, 1954. Microfilm in project files, California Department of Transportation, 1120 N Street, Sacramento.

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United States Geological Survey. Atascadero, Calif. 1:24:000, 7.5’ Quadrangle.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Atascadero, 1926.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Atascadero, 1926, updated to 1951.

The Atascadero Estates, Inc (map), 1924.

The Official Atascadero City Map, Atascadero Chamber of Commerce, 1984.

Manuscripts Weitze, Karen J. “Beaux-Arts City Beautiful or Picturesque Garden City: 1913-1916 Prototypes for American Industrial Housing of the First World War.” Unpublished report presented at the Society of Architectural Historians’ annual conference, Washington, D.C., April 1986.

Weitze, Karen J. “Prologue: The Early Years, 1898-1918.” Unpublished manuscript deals with the early career of architect Hart Wood, who was a draftsman for Bliss and Faville during the early years of the Atascasdero development. This manuscript was eventually published in: Hibbard, Don, Glenn Mason, and Karen Weitze. Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawaii. University of Hawaii Press: 2010.

Online Sources – General Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com. Accessed multiple times in 2014.

California Digital Newspaper Collection. http://cdnc.ucr.edu/. Accessed multiple times in 2014.

City of Riverside. “Landmarks of the City of Riverside.” City of Riverside. http://www.riversideca.gov/historic/pdf/landmarks-web.pdf. Accessed May 16, 2014.

Internet Archive. www.archive.org. Accessed multiple times in 2014.

Library of Congress. “Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.” http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Accessed multiple times in 2014.

National Register of Historic Places. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/. Accessed August 2014.

NoeHill in San Francisco. “San Francisco Landmarks: San Francisco Landmark #3.” NoeHill in San Francisco..http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf003.asp. Accessed August 2014.

Oakland Heritage Alliance. “List of Oakland City Landmarks (Number 48).” Oakland Heritage Alliance. http://www.oaklandheritage.org/oakland_landmarks.htm. Accessed August 2014.

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Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD). https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/. Accessed May 2014.

The Rancho Santa Fe Association. “History: Our Community.” The Rancho Santa Fe Association. http://www.rsfassociation.org/our-community/history/. Accessed August 2014.