Our beloved Cayucos Vet’s Hall was initially built by the founder of Cayucos, James Cass, as a warehouse in 1875. He built the warehouse and a 940-foot pier in order to make Cayucos a viable shipping port. The warehouse was used to house agricultural, dairy, bales of seaweed, and grain cargo bound for San Francisco or Los Angeles, along with astonishing quantities of lumber imports for the James Cass & Company lumber yards. For several decades Cass’s shipping business made it possible for local farmers, dairymen, ranchers, and consequently, local businesses, to prosper. That usefulness ended around 1910, when the advent of improved highways and trucking made shipping by rail more advantageous. The shipping business ended in 1919.

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The warehouse entered the second phase of its community significance in 1923, when it, the pier, and the waterfront were purchased by the Paso Robles Beach Company, and then the Cayucos Land and Development Company. The viability of Cayucos as a tourist resort had been discovered. At this time, the warehouse was relocated to its present location. From that point on, the warehouse began to be used more and more as a public venue being the largest public building in Cayucos. The state acquired the properties in 1940. By then, community celebrations like the Swiss and Portuguese celebrations as well as meetings, weddings, dances, and fundraisers became regular occurrences. By the time it was closed to the public in 2016, the Cayucos Vet’s Hall had been, literally, booked every weekend, as well as most weekdays all year long.

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For many reasons, it is quite rare for a community to have a historically significant building of this age, as fires were so common and devastating during those times, and Cayucos had two fires which wiped out most of its commercial center. It is also quite rare for an historical building as old to be owned by the state for the public’s use. The Cayucos Vet's Hall is a treasured gem of the town which needs to be preserved –please help commit to restore it.