Japantown in San Luis Obispo (Image source here)
Japantown in San Luis Obispo:
One block long on Higuera Street Between South and French Streets
Developed in the 1920s and 1930s by the Eto and Tsutsumi Eto families
Consisted of: two hotels, a barber shop, a soda bottling company, two groceries, and a fish and meat market
Buddhist Church and Japanese School:
The first Buddhist services on the Central Coast were offered in a Guadalupe temple in 1912
San Luis Obispo's first Buddhist Church was built in 1927
Occupied land on the other side of the Madonna Inn from 1927 - 1960
A larger temple was built in 1936
Closed down in 1942
Reopened in 1948 as a post-war congregation
Torn down in 1960 to accomodate for the US 1010 freeway interchange
Today, the Buddhist Church can be found in Avila Beach
Eto Street:
Before World War II, Brooks Street was named Eto Street
During the war, it was renamed as Brooks Street
In the 1990s, a propasal to rename the street as Eto Street was rejected
As a compromise, a park was named Eto Park in honor of the Eto family
Works Cited
San Luis Obispo 1940 Map, japantownatlas.com/map-sanluis.html.