2018 July COLONY Magazine

CIVIC PRIDE
IS ALIVE AND WELL
“Let us keep our faces to
the sunshine and we will
not see the shadows.”
E.G. Lewis
Photo by Nicholas Mattson
SIGNS OF LIFE AT Atascadero Printery
E
ngraved atop the Historic City Hall
Administration Building is a quotation
of focused optimism by town founder E.G.
Lewis that face the Atascadero Printery building.
His declaration to see the sun, and not the
shadows was tested in 2003, just days before
Christmas, the San Simeon Earthquake shook
the Central Coast to its foundation.
The City Hall building was severely damaged,
but reconstruction in 2013 brought the grand
dame back to a form and beauty that surpassed
even Lewis’ inception. Positioned directly in the
shadow of Lewis’ quotation, however, was the
Atascadero Printery Building – lone, broken
and in need of equal consideration.
Completed and ready for use in 1916, the
first civic center in Atascadero at Olmeda Avenue
and West Mall, the Salinan brick building
was listed sixth of just 37 on the National
Register of Historic Places in San Luis Obispo
County in 2004, and registered among the California
Historical Resources, Office of Historic
Preservation. Despite escaping a wrecking ball,
vandals have since contributed to the building’s
gradual demise.
Images Worth a Thousand Words
In April 2015, a collection of images captured
by photographer Rick Evans and posted
on Facebook soon drew the interest of several
people, including Nic Mattson, Mike Mc-
Namara, his wife Karen and others. What if the
building could be reclaimed, rehabilitated, and
repurposed for community use? Their meeting
would become the catalyst that birthed the
nonprofit Atascadero Printery Foundation.
On May 14, 2017, a San Luis Obispo County
tax auction was held. The Foundation volleyed
bids against another interested party. In
the final seconds of the online auction, their
$300,100 bid secured their emotion-filled win,
By Melissa Chavez
a cost not far from the $250,000 price tag it
cost E.G. Lewis to construct and supply the
building for what was once the largest rotogravure
press facility west of the Mississippi River.
A more formidable challenge is the estimated
$8 million needed to restore the building.
Completed and ready for use
in 1916, the Printery was the
first civic center in Atascadero.
The Atascadero Performing Arts Center
Committee recently partnered with the Foundation
to double their own efforts toward establishing
a theater space in Atascadero and
enable both organizations to collaborate their
efforts toward restoring the 18,000-squarefoot
building.
16 | colonymagazine.com COLONY Magazine, July 2018