Grover Beach Real Estate

Grover Beach was first claimed in 1867 as part of 8,838 acres secured under a U.S. land grant by Isaac J. Sparks, who named the town El Pizmo Rancho. It was Sparks who first decided to develop the real estate, but it was D.W. Grover who took advantage of the California land rush 20 years later and began in earnest to try to transform the sagebrush of Grover Beach into a community.

It was D.W. (as in Dwight William) Grover, legend goes, who first recognized the potential of the real estate in the area that now bears his name; Grover Beach. On August 1, 1887 , he filed plans at the San Luis Obispo County Court House and established what would become the City of Grover City.

The 35-year old lumber man from Santa Cruz is said to have paid $22,982.20 in gold to John Michael Price, the founder of Pismo Beach , for the real estate of Grover Beach. His vision was to develop a community which included a hotel and railroad station near the beach. He promoted his town as "the place where the tide lands and the rails meet".

To achieve this dream, Mr. Grover attempted to have a train station built in the Town of Grover in the 1890's, so he could attract tourists and investors. Unfortunately for the Town of Grover, the Southern Pacific Railroad company decided to built the sought after station in nearby Oceano, an unincorporated town in San Luis Obispo County.

D.W. Grover laid out streets in a grid pattern, naming them for popular beaches of the time and set aside land for a train depot, a hotel and a city park, hoping to foster commercial growth. A real estate land auction on August 1, 1887 drew more than 1,000 people to look and perhaps buy real estate in this new developing town.

The seeds of real estate development however didn't flourish as planned until many years later when Horace V. Bagwell came north in 1935 and bought about 1,100 acres of real estate in the town. He advertised Grover City as the "home of the average man", with land prices in the working man's range. Word began to spread and so did the real estate development. In the mid-1940's, the first store opened followed by the first post office. By the early 1950's Grover City was in a building boom.

The little town grew in numbers and progressed. It was not until 1959 that the majority of residents wanted to make the "city" a reality. An incorporation election was held and on December 21, 1959 and 636 of 1,900 registered voters in favor of making the Town of Grover into a city.

As the city real estate boundaries were laid out shortly after incorporation, the groundwork was also laid for more growth and development. The city grew steadily in the decades to follow, and in the mid-1970's, real estate development in the city took off as vacant lots were replaced with restaurants, markets and residences.

Then in 1992, the local community of city residents voted 2,275 to 2,179 to turn "Grover City" into "Grover Beach", reaffirming the Grover City Council's vote to change the name by Ordinance.