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OUR HIS­TO­RY

Our Sto­ry

The sto­ry begins with John Har­ford, a savvy lum­ber busi­ness­man and the first pio­neer to pur­chase the approx­i­mate­ly 80 acre site for his home and ranch. The prop­er­ty lat­er evolved into the Long-Bonet­ti Ranch and is today the site for the San Luis Obis­po Pub­lic Market.

While liv­ing on the Bonet­ti Ranch, Har­ford built the Har­ford pier in Avi­la to offload schooners with import­ed car­go from the big cities. He went on to build the nar­row gauge rail­road, car­ry­ing both pas­sen­gers and car­go into town. John Harford’s hard work and ded­i­ca­tion to the rail­road and pier sparked a trans­for­ma­tion for the city of San Luis Obis­po into a diverse mar­ket­place for the sur­round­ing area.

Between 1880 and 1923 the prop­er­ty passed through the hands of Joseph D. Grant of San Fran­cis­co and George W. Long who both made sig­nif­i­cant addi­tions to the ranch. In 1923, the Longs sold the ranch to Flori­no Bonet­ti who put good use to the fields by rais­ing sug­ar beets, bar­ley, wheat, flow­ers for seeds, sug­ar peas, cher­ry toma­toes, and grapes.

Two Bonettis on a horse at the historic ranch - About Page 2

Locat­ed mid­way between San Fran­cis­co and Los Ange­les, San Luis Obis­po is one of California’s old­est com­mu­ni­ties with a grow­ing pop­u­la­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 280,000 peo­ple in the coun­ty. The high qual­i­ty of life in San Luis Obis­po draws indi­vid­u­als from all over Cal­i­for­nia to choose our town as their home. San Luis Obis­po is a vibrant city that is equal parts small town charm and new age spirit.

Woven into San Luis Obispo’s rich past is the Bonet­ti Ranch, found­ed in 1880. To pre­serve the his­tor­i­cal land­marks of the prop­er­ty, the San Luis Obis­po Pub­lic Mar­ket incor­po­rates the restored farm­house, barn, water tow­er and gra­nary buildings

San Luis Obis­po is a unique town char­ac­ter­ized by its col­lec­tion of taste­ful cuisines and agri­cul­tur­al sur­round­ings. With this in mind, our vision for the San Luis Obis­po Pub­lic Mar­ket is to cre­ate a gath­er­ing place where peo­ple can sam­ple and enjoy the best of the Cen­tral Coast.

The ranch itself boasts 4.18 acres, with 48,242 square feet ded­i­cat­ed to the Mar­ket Hall and sur­round­ing shops. Total­ing eight build­ings, the San Luis Obis­po Pub­lic Mar­ket blends the ren­o­va­tions of exist­ing his­toric build­ings with the con­struc­tion of four new build­ings hous­ing restau­rant and retail shops, a mar­ket hall, and a brewery.

Map of California indicating that SLO Public Market is halfway between LA and SF - About Pg 1