SLO TOWN

San Luis Obispo - Then

In the early 1900’s, Palm Street was San Luis Obispo’s Chinatown. Still standing is Ah Louis Store. Ah Louis was not a trained herbalist, but he was known to carry the best quality “medications, vitamins and tonics”. I remember visiting his store as a child in the early 1960’s and being in awe of the hundreds of “my-size” wooden drawers that seemed to be everywhere I looked. I don’t recall how my family happened to be in the store. He was known for his herbs that were cut on-site - much like we strive to do locally today.

Ah Louis served as merchant, labor contractor, banker, physician and pharmacist and bar tender to the Chinese community.

Most of the laborers who worked on laying the track extension between Avila and San Luis Obispo were Chinese immigrants recruited by Ah Louis, an early entrepreneur, leader in the Chinese community, and founder of a family and that is now a member of the establishment in San Luis Obispo (Nicholson, 1980). Ah Louis also ran a merchandise store at the corner of Chorro Street and Palm Street that catered to the local Chinese population. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also one of the few remaining historic structures leftover from Chinatown, roughly considered the area between Chorro, Mill, Morro, and Monterey streets.

The majority of Chinese laborers who worked on building the narrow-gauge track lived in historic Chinatown and were recruited at the Ah Louis store. This narrow gauge rail, however, was fated to become obsolete.

San Luis Obispo - Now

San Luis Obispo has a very active downtown community. Summertime brings music to Mission Plaza on Friday evenings where folks come out to people-watch, tap toes and dance. Our Thursday night Farmers’ Market is renown as a five-block event that has the finest in fresh produce and flowers, Barbeque hot off the grill along with other incredible eats, and music playing on several street corners. Stay until the end, and if you’re lucky it will be on a Thursday when the cyclists close the event by riding from Santa Rosa down Higuera by what seems to be dozens and dozens of them!

There is almost always something organized for the various holidays, as is typical for most cities, but we tend to takes things a step farther to honor our local heritage and traditions. How about a CowParade!?!

CowParade SLO County showcased 101 (for Highway 101) of these life-size, 120-pound, fiberglass works of art. The CowParade started in 1999 and has been in 75 major cities throughout the world - including Paris, Hong Kong, Athens, Moscow, Milan, London, New York, Cannes, Rio, Rome and beyond. The event raises money for charities. Speaking on behalf of SLO, we are honored to be amongst such company!