One of two octagonal barns left in California

The Pereira Octagon Barn in San Luis Obispo is a historic structure located on the southern outskirts of the city. Built in 1906, it was constructed by Henri LaFranchi, an Italian-Swiss immigrant and meat market owner, John Damaso, an Azorean carpenter, and an unknown man identified only as a "milk farmer." Because there were no other octagonal barns in the area, the builders may have worked from patterns of octagonal construction found in farm journals or catalogs.

The barn was first used by Italian-Swiss immigrant Antonio Stornetta, who leased it for his Santa Fe Dairy operation until 1917. In 1920, Joaquin and Josephine Pereira, along with Josephine's sister Eleanor and her husband Manuel Garcia, purchased the property and made it part of a dairy operation in the Los Osos Valley called the Home Dairy. This operation included a pasteurization and bottling plant and made daily milk deliveries throughout the city. Dairy operations continued into the 1950s when small-scale dairy operations were no longer economically viable.

The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County has restored the barn, which is now a community gathering place for local history, agriculture, recreation, and sustainability. The 5000-square-foot barn is made with redwood timbers and has a new, custom shingled replacement redwood roof and a cupola reaching over 40 feet above the floor. The property includes a 1938 milking parlor, a calf barn, and plans for a windmill, a restored wetland, and photovoltaic power. Located at 4400 Octagon Way, the barn is the official start of the Bob Jones City-to-Sea Bicycle Trail.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons