Bulletin printed by the Atascadero Press
January 18, 1916
THE ATASCADERO ESTATES AND PLAN
BEFORE selecting the Atascadero Estates for the location of the Atascadero project, a most exhaustive investigation was made of practically every large body of land available in the State of California, from San Diego to the top of the Sacramento Valley. Certain requirements were made by the plan of the proposed community, each of which had its proportionate value in relation to the others. Climate, accessibility, soil, rainfall, nearness to a desirable sea beach, available means for transportation of product, desirability and beauty as a place of residence, thermal conditions requisite for successful production of deciduous fruits and abundance of pure WATER, were the determining factors.
The Atascadero Estates, comprising 23,000 acres under a single ownership, are located on the main line of the Coast division of the ;southern Pacific railroad, which traverses ,them from north to south for ten miles; bisected by the great State Highway paved with solid concrete from Los Angeles to San Francisco; a thousand feet above the sea but within six miles of one of the finest sea beaches on the coast below it with a deep water harbor at one end; with an average rainfall for the past twenty years of 26 inches; covered with centuries old growth of superb live and white oaks, and with a deep and rich soil, mulched by centuries of deposits of vegetable growths; a superb vista of splendid valleys, rolling hills and on the western border a chain of mountains dividing it from the sea beach below.
With inexhaustible resources or the purest water, in many mountain streams, fed by mountain springs, an underlying water table at from eighty to a hundred feet, and the Salinas River along one side of the Estates for many miles, it is especially adapted to the most successful culture of every known variety of deciduous fruits; and with a climate probably not equalled for desirability in the world, the Atascadero Estates stood so far above all other available properties in California that the choice was immediate and unanimous.
Three years of occupation and exhaustive Investigation have only confirmed the wisdom of its selection. Another estate to equal it could probably not be found.
THE CIVIC CENTER, ATASCADERO, NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION, AS IT WILL BE WHEN COMPLETED. FOUR OF THE GREAT BUILDINGS ARE ALREADY UNDER ROOF. THE CIVIC GROUP WHEN (;0MPLETED WILL HAVE COST APPROXIMATELY A MILLION DOLLARS.
Since the days of Mexico's ownership of California, the Atascadero Estate has had but three owners, and has been preserved almost intact from the original Spanish Grant. The owner from whom it was purchased, Mr. J. H. Henry, had owned it for thirty years. It was in its primitive condition, almost untouched by the hand of man, beautiful beyond compare, rich, desirable, accessible, with never a hot night in the summer and never cold enough for snow or a heavy coat in midday in the winter-a wonderful property with a climate soft and balmy as the south seas during the day, and brisk and cold at night, winter and summer alike.
Possessing soil conditions seldom equalled as shown by the growth of great forests of majestic live oaks, and every species of shrub, wild flower and native verdure, the very name of the Estates, brought down from a hundred years-Atascadero-meaning the place of many waters, and significant of the abundant rainfall and abounding brooks, springs and water resources-it seemed to be the promised land, preserved through ages for just such a project as that of Atascadero a project for the establishing of beautiful homes, surrounded by every natural advantage and desirability, enhanced by every improvement, comfort and opportunity, and . based on a ,productiveness that would assure to the "highest degree possible the successful accomplishment of Abraham Lincoln's prediction: the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.
The Atascadero Estates were selected and purchased because they possessed to the highest degree:
- A marvelous climate.
- Abundant rainfall, making irrigation of the orchards unnecessary.
- Accessibility, being on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad and traversed by the State Highway.
- The best general soil types obtainable.
- Unlimited resources of pure water.
- Wonderfully beautiful topography.
- A superb sea beach easily accessible.
- Every natural advantage and resource for the development of a great and beautiful community.
- There is no reason why we should have purchased the Atascadero Estates if a better property could have been found.
THE ATASCADERO PLAN So much for the Atascadero Estates. The Atascadero plan, contemplates the establishment of an ideal community, along sound business lines, with a basic business foundation of a large production of natural products of the highest quality in the most efficient and economical manner, and the marketing of those products through proper organization;' all the way from the producer to the consumer. The cost of all general public improvements was to be carefully determined in advance, including civic buildings, water systems, roads and streets, etc. These costs were to be prorated over the land so that each acre would bear its pro rata of them.At about the center and most accessibly located was to be established two groups of institutions, one the Civic Center, embracing the administrative, mercantile, educational and entertainment facilities, buildings and institutions to be surrounded by gardens, parks and ornamentation. The second group, separated from the first, was to be located for convenient shipping facilities on the railroad where the Industrial Center would embrace the manufacturing, canning, preserving, lumber yards, etc. Surrounding these two centers, a residential district of approximately 2,500 acres, with surfaced streets, water mains, and the general improvements of a city, but with residential lots of sufficient size to ensure the advantages of gardens, lawns, flower beds and a few fruit trees. Surrounding the residential section, the thousands of acres of orchards, in zones, radiating out to the boundaries of the estate. Throughout the entire forty square miles of the vast Estate roads of good construction, designed to make the Civic and Industrial Centers easily accessible to every part of the property. Several thousand acres of such land that, while of the most beautiful topography, should be found under rigid soil tests not to come up to the high standard fixed for all lands to be devoted to horticulture and agriculture, to be reserved as parks for the use and enjoyment of the residents. The purchasers of residence lots and orchards were not to be permitted to become resident on the property until at least two years had been given, in order that the general improvements might be so far completed as to provide comforts and advantages in place of the usual hardships of pioneering. For the rest of the article see the initial Atascadero Bulletin from1916,
