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Researching San Luis Obispo County History

Resources for researching San Luis Obispo County and the Central Coast

Post 1850-Communities in SLO City

This guide was originally created to support students in second-year architecture courses researching marginalized and underrepresented communities in the city of San Luis Obispo. We hope it may be of use to others as a starting place for researching community histories, especially marginalized communities, on the Central Coast.

This is a work in progress, if you recommend additional resources to add to this guide, please email us at archives@calpoly.edu. 

Some records to consult on:

yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini tribe of indigenous Northern Chumash people

Chinatown in San Luis Obispo: approximately the 800 Block of Palm Street

Japantown in San Luis Obispo: Area near South and Higuera Street 

Black experiences in San Luis Obispo

Filipino American experiences on the Central Coast: