Latest news with #HistoricalMarkerDatabase
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SLO County landmark for sale for first time in a decade — and it'll only cost you $8.7 million
Uniquely is a Tribune series that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in SLO County so special. The real estate listing says it all: You could own a 150-year-old piece of North Coast history, including a former bed-and-breakfast, restaurant, large party gazebo, wedding venue and a small bakery on a little less than an acre — if you have a cool $8.7 million in your pocket. The circa 1875 Cass House, centrally located in downtown Cayucos, is for sale for the first time in more than a decade. It was listed in late February by Behnam Investment Group, the commercial division of Nest Seekers International. Jeniece Grimshaw's popular Bijou Bakery has been a tenant on one of the two combined lots for more than four years. She rents the compact structure on a month-to-month lease. Grimshaw told The Tribune on Thursday that she is not worried the sale will impact her business. The other activities on the property at 149 Cayucos Drive have been idle since 2019. That's when Traci Hozie-Alderson, niece to the property's owners Harry and Tovya McKellop of San Francisco, closed her Cass House Bar & Grill to focus on her nearby expanding Brown Butter Cookie Co. business. Properly running two businesses was exhausting, and something had to change, Hozie-Alderson said. 'I loved the Cass House,' she said. 'It was a passion project for me, and I felt so lucky to be there. It's magical.' Now the property is for sale — and it's already got some interested potential buyers. The man immortalized in Cayucos history, James Cass, immigrated from England at the age of 12, and was a river pilot who'd tried gold mining and farming in Sacramento County. At the age of 49, with a wife and five children, Cass moved to the Central Coast and eventually helped establish the bustling seaport town of Cayucos. He built a wharf and a shipping business; had cattle, dairy and fruit ranches; and established a stage line between his town and the Paso Robles and San Miguel area. However, by 1944, what had been the prized Cass home was no longer owned by the Cass family, and it fell into disrepair. 'Historic homes can't save themselves,' Tribune photojournalist David Middlecamp wrote in a column on the historic home in 2017. In the meantime, various families lived in the house, some for many years. The sprawling house was the second structure designated as historic by a marker from the San Luis Obispo Historical Society — now History Center of San Luis Obispo County. The plaque was placed in 1967, according to the Historical Marker Database. When a potential buyer in August 1981 wanted the dilapidated property and planned to bulldoze the house, then-owner Harold Biaggini made his wishes for the house clear. 'We told him to go to hell,' Biaggini told The Tribune in 2017. 'That house is going to be preserved.' And so it was. Among the subsequent owners of the Cass House were Gary and Nancy Bagnall. Seeing the landmark status and commercial potential, they invested $1.2 million and 15 years into the community icon they'd paid $400,000 for in 1993. They turned it into a lodging and restaurant while deeply respecting its heritage, and it opened as an inn and restaurant in 2007. Fast forward to when the McKellops bought the historic place for $2.5 million in 2014, vowing to further enhance it and capitalize on that potential while honoring and showcasing its history. They spent another $1.5 million to transition the restored icon into what it is today. Cass House Inn and Restaurant in Cayucos is being sold It's complete with five bedrooms in the bed-and-breakfast, restaurant and a bakery, a wedding and special event venue with an arbor and lawn, the Cass Beach Cottage or guest house, a restaurant-grade kitchen and bar and much more. The Cass House is a block from the Cayucos shore, the pier and the newly renovated Veterans Hall which is expected to reopen as early as this summer, according to Supervisor Bruce Gibson. The property may not be for sale for long. The prime location and possibilities for a mini resort have already attracted quite a bit of attention, according to real estate agent Monique Alexander at Nest Seekers. 'There's good interest going on,' she said. 'We've had some bites already.' But she said as always in real estate, 'we're waiting for that solid offer.' For more details on the historic home, go to the Cayucos Historical Society's history of the Cass House. You can also visit Benham's website or call 310-278-8861.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Where is the exact center of Michigan? Well, that depends
The small Michigan city of St. Louis claims the geographic center of the state, but there's a Wexford County location that has a similar designation. St. Louis, located just off U.S. 27 in Gratiot County, can claim the rights to the geographic center of the Lower Peninsula. A site about 5 miles north-northwest of Cadillac, in Wexford County, however, is the center when you include the Upper Peninsula, according to Netstate. St. Louis' slogan — "Middle of the Mitten" — makes its position clear. The city has a stone monument marking the exact coordinates of the Lower Peninsula's center, the Historical Marker Database said. Here's more on Michigan's center points. The location's coordinates are 43 degrees, 24.493 minutes North, 84 degrees, 36.318 minutes West. A marker stands in Clapp Memorial Park, at 232 E. Saginaw St. In 2009, longtime residents Walter and Beulah Case donated a 5-by-8-inch bronze plaque that was placed on a historic stone marker in Clapp Park, according to the city's website. The plaque reads, "Sidney S. Hastings placed this stone here in 1876 to mark the geographical center of lower Michigan." A blue sign also hangs in Clapp Park, near M-46, reminding visitors that they are visiting the middle of the Lower Peninsula. The coordinates are 45 degrees, 3.7 minutes North, 84 degrees, 56.3 minutes West, not far from Cadillac. No official source appears to list a geographical center for Michigan's UP. The best method to calculate an precise location is called the center-of-gravity method, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration said. "Determining the geographic center of an irregular area on the Earth's surface is a precarious business at best," NOAA said. "There is no unique solution, and none of any scientific significance." NOAA's method imagines an area of uniform thickness balancing on a point. The center is the point where the area would balance. For the 48 states in the continental U.S., its exact center is located in Lebanon, Kansas. The coordinates are, 39 degrees, 50 minutes North, 98 degrees, 35 minutes West, the Center for Land Use Interpretation said. When Alaska and Hawaii are included in the measurement, the center shifts to 17 miles west of Castle Rock, South Dakota, Kansas Sampler Foundation said. The coordinates in South Dakota's center are 44 degrees, 59 minutes North, 103 degrees, 38 minutes West, NOAA said. Contact Sarah Moore @ smoore@ This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan's middle has 2 options, depending on how you measure
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
5 Military Forts Were Lost for Centuries. One Has Finally Been Found.
Archaeologists uncovered an earthen British fort buried under St. Augustine, Florida, and dated it to between 1763 and 1783. British rule was short-lived in St. Augustine and was sandwiched between Spanish ownership, making the discovery a first of its kind. The only historical remnants found at the site were seeds. Due to the massive amount of history potentially sitting under the soil of St. Augustine—which is considered the oldest city in the United States, thanks to its 1565 Spanish founding—any construction project requires an archaeological check. Recently, as reported by Jacksonville Today, one of those checks came to fruition in a very exciting form: a small British dirt fort in the Lincolnville neighborhood. Historians know about the potential for British fortifications called redoubts in St. Augustine, with seven believed to have been built across the town, according to the Historical Marker Database. But the modern-day locations were lost to history. 'None of them have been found archaeologically, even though people have been looking for them for decades, until this one,' Andrea White, city archaeologist, told Jacksonville Today. 'It is probably because it is so ethereal—it is very hard to locate, sort of like looking for a needle in a haystack.' That's because the redoubts were made of dirt, and are likely all now buried under... you guessed it... more dirt. Finding this first redoubt was a delicate process, which began when crews tested the soil and discovered a deep ditch. 'Lo and behold, we found an extremely large ditch or moat that is about 15 feet wide,' White said. 'We knew based on the size of it, the width of it, that this was something that was not an agricultural ditch.' The ditch, which turned out to be a protective ditch once dug around the fortification, was enough to give archeologists confidence that this was indeed one of those seven lost redoubts. The only artifacts found were seeds, and the rest of the fort was swallowed up by the earth. The ditch has now been covered back up, allowing the site to be built on by the owner. 'That's one of the reasons it is hard to find, and you have to really strip large areas of soil to be able to locate it,' White said. 'It was actually mostly made out of earth, which makes it harder to locate.' St. Augustine was a Spanish-occupied location from its founding in 1565 until the British took control in 1763. That rule lasted for 20 years until the Spanish again gained control post-Revolutionary War. The United States took over the site in 1821. During their time, the British constructed seven redoubts both west and south of the town in response to the Revolutionary War. While there are maps that show their locations, the maps are inconsistent (and could just be plans, rather than actual constructed redoubts), leaving historians to wonder where they were actually built. 'This was something very unique done by the British, so it is kind of the only representation that we have of the British constructing any sort of fortifications in St. Augustine,' White said. 'One of the other things that is great about it is because the historical records are kind of sparse, we don't really know how big they were, how they were constructed, how long they were used.' This find, hopefully, will add to that knowledge. 'Each project we do,' White said, 'is one more piece of the puzzle.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
