Cambria Village was founded in the summer of 1866, when Samuel Pollard and George Long acquired part of the Santa Rosa Rancho of Don Julian Estrada and laid out the present Main Street. Bridge Street and several short streets.

About 1863, the first small sawmill was erected in this area by William Leffingwell; now known as Leffingwell's landing on Moonstone Beach. The town did not formally take the name "Cambria" until 1869. After the original subdivision in 1866, the town grew quickly as many Italian-Swiss homesteaders and ranchers in the area came regularly for supplies and services. By 1875, Cambria was the 2nd largest town in the County and was a major central coast seaport and whaling station. In addition, the area was active with mining, dairy farming and ranching.

Cambria reached a peak in growth about 1880, and changed little until the great fire of 1889, when the entire business section of town was destroyed. At that time Cambria had only a small hand pulled fire cart and a small hook and ladder set-up. An outgrowth of the great fire was the organization of a volunteer fire department with new and better equipment and water storage facilities. An excellent volunteer fire department with a full time, salaried fire chief still serves the community.

In 1894, railroad lines were extended into San Luis Obispo from the south, causing rapid decline in coastal shipping. Cambria became economically isolated due to the extremely poor condition of access roads, as industry and transportation elsewhere improved. The automobile boom hit Cambria about 1910, the year the horse-drawn stage coach was discontinued, and most stores and livery stables quickly adapted to gas pumps and garages. About this time the Cambria Telephone Company opened at a cost of $1.00 per month to subscribers. Electricity was late in coming to Cambria due to our country's involvement in World War I, but in 1921 a public utility line was finally completed.

In 1924 an improved road to Cambria was completed, this attracted the land developers who became known as the Cambria Development Company. The subdivision was advertised nationwide, in newspapers and on the radio, and many lots sold sight unseen to people in all parts of the country. Other developers soon followed.

In 1931, the Cambrian, a weekly newspaper, was established and still continues today. Beginning in 1948, an annual Labor Day Celebration known as Pinedorado became Cambria's foremost yearly event.

In the 1950's many summer homes were built on the picturesque pine covered hills of Cambria. Later Hearst Castle was opened to the public. In 1962 the winding curves were taken out of Highway 1 between Cambria and Morro Bay and the road was widened. In many places the old road can still be seen off to one side. Then in 1964 the Highway bypass of Cambria was completed.

Today with more than 100 years of history behind it, Cambria still contains a large number of descendants of pioneer families as well as the many people attracted by the remnants of its rugged past and its unique charm. Fair Cambria has become a haven for city-weary folk, a restful place to visit for a few hours, days or forever.
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Research: Jesse Arnold
Design: Ginny Monteen

"It has been suggested that the pronunciation of the name of Cambria, as accepted and officially recorded by the Cambria Chamber of Commerce, be brought to the attention of the readers at this point. The soft a is used and pronounced as in man."
    Geneva Hamilton - Where the Highway Ends, Introduction 1974


Cambria is a spot whose perfection is marred only by the mispronunciation of its name. Most locals believe it sounds a bit bizarre to say CAMEbria, as in came and went.

When the original settlers of Cambria decided to name their town, they submitted the name - Santa Rosa - to the Post Master General, because the town is on Santa Rosa Creek.

Post Office regulations required that they submit second and third choices. Their second choice was Rosaville, and their third choice was San Simeon.

Santa Rosa was rejected because Santa Rosa in Sonoma County already had that name. Rosaville was also turned down because it was too much like Roseville, near Sacramento.

So the people had to settle for San Simeon, a third choice they never thought they would have to accept. The early settlers knew they didn't want their town to be called San Simeon, but they couldn't agree on another name. The name that was finally agreed upon, after a year of deliberations, was Cambria.

Although there is apparently no documentation as to who suggested the name of Cambria, Geneva Hamilton in her book, Where the Highway Ends, supports the story that mining engineer Peter A. Forrester came up with the idea. She explains that he had visited a small mining town named Cambria in his home state of Pennsylvania.

The name Cambria goes back to the Roman invasion of Wales in the British Isles when the name Cambria was given to the country now called Wales. Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language lists Cambria as a poetic word for Wales.

Regardless of who actually suggested the name Cambria, Geneva Hamilton points out that the settlers of Cambria were a well educated group of people, such as Forrester. So it's not surprising that the pioneers adopted the dictionary pronunciation for their town: Cam`-bri-a

The Cambria Historical Society has also confirmed the pronunciation by interviewing descendents of pioneer families.

According to lifelong resident and local historian Wilfred Lyons, there never was any question about the way to say Cambria until the Cambria Pines Development Company came to town in 1928. When the company began subdividing Happy Hill, Park Hill and Lodge Hill, they advertised lots for sale on the radio during the 1930s in Los Angeles and the Central Valley. The problem? They used the incorrect pronunciation. The development company said CAMEbria, instead of CAMbria.

We can all make Cambria a 'more congenial spot' by honoring our pioneers, retaining their style, and saying Cambria as in Camelot.

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Research: Jesse Arnold
Design: Ginny Monteen
For copies of the brochure, please call Jesse Arnold, 927-3096

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Art Beal, born in Oakland of Irish and Native American parentage, spent much of his childhood in orphanages.

He built a three-level fantasy environment from collected materials in Cambria, which locals called the Poor Man's Hearst Castle. This has a literal basis, as some construction material was scavenged from the Hearst estate. It helped that Beal was a local trash hauler, and had difficulty discarding things. He believed that everything could and should be reused. He salvaged nails and screws from old boards, and organized them in old glass jars. With pick ax and shovel, he hollowed out a 2.5 acre hillside in Cambria, using collected trash as landfill, to create an intricate network of terraced gardens, buildings, ornamental stone arches, fountains and walkways.

He did this, declared proudly, with only two helpers, Mother Earth and Dame Nature.

When Art was forced to leave in 1989, the building remained vacant and continued to deteriorate for almost a decade, when the site was purchased by Michael and Stacey O'Malley, who immediately embarked on their huge restoration project.

This is as much a labor of love for the O'Malley's, as building Nit Wit Ridge had been for Beal, in the first place.

The building is a time capsule of earlier decades, precisely because Beal never threw away anything. The cabinet drawers, and closets contain his clothing (including the signature faded bathrobe), old letters, newspaper clippings, calendars, food tins and bedding. All are on display for visitors.

Most instructive is the comparison between Nit Wit Ridge - built from local scrap, over a 51-year period, by a single trash hauler - and Hearst Castle. That elaborate tourist destinations, only six miles north on the Pacific Coast Highway, is made from expensive artifacts collected from around the world by a wealthy publisher, who hired architect Julia Morgan and a small army of construction workers, all of whom labored for 28 years to build an estate on 127 acres with 41 fireplaces, 56 bedrooms and 61 bathrooms.

History makes all things equal; Today, both Nit Wit Ridge and Hearst Castle are state historical landmarks.

Tours of Nit Wit Ridge are available by reservation (805) 927-2690, and include a four minute video made in 1977.
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The Guthrie-Bianchini House located at the corner of Burton Drive and Center Street in Cambria's East Village is one of the oldest houses in Cambria.

The original house, a small "salt box" construction, was built by Thomas Clendinen sometime between 1869 and 1871. This is the portion which faces Center Street and is nearest to the "Blue House". In 1882 the property was purchased by Benjamin Franklin (no, not that one) and by the following year he had constructed the addition which faces Burton Drive and sold the house to Sarah Guthrie. Her husband, Samuel Guthrie, worked at the Grant & Lull Store on the corner of Bridge and Main Streets where Cambria Village Pharmacy is now and eventually came to own that business when Lull retired to the house that is now the centerpiece of the Bluebird Motel on Main Street. Samuel retired in 1903 and died two years later.

Sarah remained in the house until 1914 when she sold it to Eugenio Bianchini, a Swiss immigrant. Bianchini arrived in the Cambria area by ship at the port of San Simeon in 1878. At various times he was in the dairy business, owned a butcher shop in Cayucos and, later, one in Cambria, and worked at the Oceanic Quicksilver Mine. He also owned at least two ranches, one of which was at the mouth of Pico Creek and today is known as San Simeon Acres.

Eugenio married Louisa Bezzini, also a Swiss immigrant. Authorities differ as to the number of children they had with some saying it was six and others saying it was nine of which seven survived. One of the children, Elvira, married Rocco Rava and they lived in what has become known as the "Blue House" next door. Eugenio was a master of the barbecue and the tradition is being carried on by CHS at the annual Heritage Day Celebration. He was also a whiskey importer during prohibition purchasing the stuff in Canada and bringing it by boat to a point just south of Piedras Blancas Lighthouse. It was then retailed through a local doctor!

After Eugenio Bianchini died, some of his family continued to live in the house. The last official occupant was one of his sons, Jim, commonly known as Spider, who lived there until the seventies. Sine then the house remained unoccupied, except for transients, while Eugenio's heirs fought over the estate. The continuing litigation kept the house in limbo until The Cambria Historical Society managed to acquire the property in 2001.

During the last four years CHS has begun the actual work of restoring the house and turning it into a historical museum. The entire "salt box" portion, has been totally disassembled. All of the parts removed have been carefully documented and logged by Cambria Historical Society volunteers led by John Ruml and stored on the property. If possible, these parts will be reused when the house is assembled again or, if they cannot be saved, they will be used to fabricate duplicate parts. In addition, a more recent addition to the kitchen and a bathroom were also removed.

On July 14, 2004, the remainder of the house was lifted up about eight feet and a stem-wall foundation was built for the structure. On October 20, the G-B House was gently lowered onto its newly constructed foundation where it now sits quite comfortably. Since that time, work has proceeded on the inside of the house to accomplish some work for the shear walls and installing seismic hold-downs.

The Guthrie-Bianchini House will become the western anchor of a Heritage Park encompassing all of Center Street between Burton Drive and Bridge Street. At the Bridge Street end of Center Street, the old CCSD building was demolished on June 17, 2004 and the property is now a temporary "passive recreation area" until funds are available to do something permanent.

If you wish to join The Cambria Historical Society or make a tax-deductible donation to the Guthrie-Bianchini House restoration, please contact CHS at P.O. Box 906, Cambria, CA, 93428 or call 805-927-2891
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