Most of Santa Margarita was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1897 on, and old-book passages.
Founding year: the first Santa Margarita post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Santa Margarita’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Santa Margarita is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Santa Margarita’s overall grade.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Santa Margarita’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (31% of California towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±10.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Santa Margarita’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Santa Margarita. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1897San Luis Obispo sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Santa Margarita.
Santa Margarita was named for the 13th-century Saint Margaret of Cortona (1247–1297).
Santa Margarita Valley, with its year-round running streams and abundant acorns, was a meeting place for northern Chumash and southern Salinan around 6500 BCE. The de Anza Expedition traversed the Cuesta Grade into the valley in 1776. After Fr. Junipero Serra founded the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, he realized that an assistancia (sub-mission) was needed. The Santa Margarita de Cortona Asistencia was founded circa 1775, and was named for the Italian Saint, Santa Margarita de Cortona. The Spanish El Camino Real trail past it is the city's present-day main street.
Passages that mention Santa Margarita, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county and environs who have been identified with the growth and development of the section from the early days to the present1917 · page 108Read the page →
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Santa Margarita was the terminus of the railroad from January 31, 1889, to Ma\- 5, 1894. The road from Santa Margarita to San Luis Obispo lay over the Santa Lucia mountains. The route called for seven tunnels, many great fills, the horseshoe curve, and a long steel trestle across Stenner creek canon. The creek is ninety feet below the rails of the trestle in one place.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of San Luis Obispo County, California1883 · page 372Read the page →
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office. It is the post-office for a large extent of country surrounding it; the Estrella settlement extending twelve miles on the east, of Cashius Station fifteen miles south, Santa Margarita and Eagle Rancho eighteen miles south and the Morehouse settlement eight miles west. D. D. BLACKBURN.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county and environs who have been identified with the growth and development of the section from the early days to the present1917 · page 155Read the page →
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Santa Margarita is the next town south of Templeton, and was laid out and had a land sale in the spring of 1889, soon after the Southern Pacific reached there. It is built on a part of the Santa IXIargarita ranch.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of San Luis Obispo County, California1883 · page 241Read the page →
Read the text
other; the other fossils occupied the sandstones lying below the upper calcareous layers, having the comminuted shells and other points of resemblance with the beds containing ostrea and hinnites of Santa Margarita. The Panza beds are thicker than those of Santa Margarita, and more variety in the animal life contained in them. Like the latter beds, the Panza strata lie upon the slope of the San Josfe Range, and have suffered ex-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Santa Margarita, 1867 to 1991
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Santa Margarita post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Santa Margarita rank for history?
Santa Margarita is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Santa Margarita?
8% of Santa Margarita’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.9 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1986.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1991
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2008