Harmony is an unincorporated community in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. It lies on State Route 1 between Cayucos to the south and Cambria to the north, near the junction with State Route 46.
Swiss and Italian immigrants founded a creamery at Harmony in 1869, and the community became a center of dairying on the Central Coast until the creamery closed in the 1950s. Its population is conventionally given as 18, a figure long displayed on the town sign. Since the 1970s the surviving creamery buildings have housed craft workshops, a pottery, a glassworks and a wedding chapel, and the community was bought in 2014 by a family who announced plans to restore it.
History Swiss and Italian immigrants settled the coastal hills between Cambria and Cayucos in the 1860s, turning to dairying after fires and drought made crop farming difficult, and founded a creamery at Harmony in 1869.
The community's name is commonly explained by a truce ending a feud among rival dairymen. New Times reported in 2016 that this account is local legend rather than documented history, and that the killing associated with it was the stabbing of schoolteacher James Yates Stewart by his brother-in-law in August 1874, a family dispute with little or no connection to the dairy business.
The Harmony Valley Dairy Co-op was founded in 1901 and operated until 1955. At its height the community also had a stable, a blacksmith and later a gas station. The one-room Harmony School opened in 1875, and a feed store and post office followed. At its height in the early 1900s the creamery produced about 1,200 pounds of butter and cheese a day, and the dairy building still standing at the center of the community was built in 1908. The publisher William Randolph Hearst, whose estate at San Simeon lay to the north, was among those known to call at Harmony, as were visitors from Hollywood.
The creamery closed in 1955. The community saw a resurgence in the 1970s as an artists' colony, with craftworkers taking over the former dairy buildings. Many of the town's historic landmarks, including the main creamery, were restored and reopened as restaurants and shops.
Since the 1970s, Harmony has experienced cycles of prosperity and neglect. It has been home to upscale restaurants, crafts, ceramics and art. More recently, Harmony became a town in name only; a single restaurant remained, but went through several owners before closing in the late 1990s.
In 2014, Harmony was purchased by Alan VanderHorst and his family, who plan to restore and preserve the 2.5-acre historic town.
Geography Harmony lies in the coastal hills of northern San Luis Obispo County, on State Route 1 about south of Cambria and near the junction with State Route 46. The surrounding valley, running roughly from Villa Creek to State Route 46 West, is estimated locally at about .
Layout
Harmony occupies a single block of about on one paved street off State Route 1. The main structure is a U-shaped building, the former creamery, enclosing a small plaza. The Harmony Pottery Shop stands on the far side of the structure and the former post office and a visitors' lounge on the near side. A wedding chapel and gardens lie to the rear.
Climate Modelled climate estimates for Harmony show mild temperatures through the year, with most precipitation falling between November and March and very little in summer.
Economy Retail shops in the community sell art objects, hand-blown glass and pottery. Harmony Glassworks now lies at the north-west end of the street. Founded in 2007, it operates as a gallery, studio and school offering glassblowing classes. There was a restaurant, but it closed in 1997.
Harmony Cellars, a winery and tasting room just south of the community, was founded in 1989 by Chuck and Kim Mulligan and produces about 7,500 cases a year. Kim Mulligan's great-grandfather, Giacomo Barlogio, was among the founders of the creamery cooperative, and the winery stands on land that was part of his holdings.
Arts and culture Harmony was once known for a "Doo Dah" parade in which, with nowhere for entries to travel in a one-block community, the participants stayed in place and the spectators walked around them. A Maine Coon cat was at one point proclaimed the town's mayor.
The singer Jehry Miller wrote and recorded the song "Harmonizing in Harmony: Population 18" in the 1970s.
In popular culture In episode 3 of the Korean drama The Heirs produced by Seoul Broadcasting System, the main characters played by Lee Min-ho and Park Shin-hye visit the town of Harmony and the winery located there.
In the 4th episode of the HLN Kids Network's Gerbda, Harmony is mentioned on a list of tourist destinations read by Buster, a character played by Matt Walsh.
Harmony is featured as an artists' colony in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Absent Artist" (season 5, episode 23; 1962), under the name "Port Harmony".
Infrastructure The post office opened in 1914 and closed in 2008.
References
External links History of Harmony (partial) Harmony Glassworks