In Chapter 6, Nicola gets her first glimpse of San Luis Obispo when she and Theresa take a carriage from the Ramona Hotel to Sycamore Street, where Theresa lives with her sister Bertha. As they plod along the marshy streets, they pass the Fulton Market that stands adjacent to the French Hotel, where in Chapter 38 Nicola has a glass of wine with Henry Leach.
The Fulton Market was among San Luis Obispo’s earliest businesses, occupying an adobe structure on the corner of Monterey and Chorro Streets across from Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.
Operating as a butcher, general-merchandise, and liquor store, the Fulton was also a meeting place for “wild bands of murderous cutthroats who frequented the store late at night,” according to accounts in the San Luis Obispo Tribune. When Nicola’s carriage driver relays the story of the infamous outlaw Joaquin Murietta and his gang meeting there in the 1860s, she is horrified.
Advertisements in the Tribune declared the Fulton “THE ONLY FIRST-CLASS MARKET IN THE CITY.” It offered “ALL KINDS OF FRESH, SALTED, AND SMOKED MEATS … PICKLED PIG’S FEET AND OTHER DELICACIES” and paid “CASH …. FOR CATTLE, SHEEP, HOGS, AND POULTRY.” By the 1880s, the Fulton Market boasted one of the few telephones in town and took meat orders by phone.
The French Hotel provided long-term residency as well as overnight lodging, although some guests complained that the clanging of the mission bells across the street disturbed their slumbers. The hotel had a bakery and a first-class restaurant that claimed distinction for its unusual–French–cuisine, which was served with wine.
Fire ravaged the hotel in 1908, reducing it to ashes. Many long-term residents lost prized possessions including heirloom jewelry, photographs, and silverware. Fortunately, flames spared the surrounding buildings, including the Fulton Market, which had relocated a few doors down on Chorro Street. The hotel was never rebuilt but the Fulton Market had a successful 78-year run as one of San Luis Obispo’s first butcher shops.
Pictures of the historic Fulton Market and French Hotel can be seen in: San Luis Obispo: A History in Architecture by Janet Penn
Fulton Market and French Hotel— pages 15 – 16
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