Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park: Maintenance Buildings - Big Sur CA

City:: Big Sur, CA
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Shops and Auxiliary Buildings
New Deal Agencies:: Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Started:: 1933
Completed:: 1941
Quality of Information:: Moderate
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made extensive improvements to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park on the central California coast, developing it for public recreational use. The state parks commission acquired the land in 1933, but had no funds for development. The CCC worked in the park from 1933 to 1941, but the sources do not always specify exact dates for each improvement.

The CCC enrollees built a number of functional buildings for park maintenance, which are clustered at the far end of the main road where they are partially hidden behind a high, earthen berm. We were not able to determine the function of all the various structures, which presumably include garages, workshops and some staff residences, including one individual ranger residence.

Most of the maintenance cluster appear to be from the 1930s, but some must be more recent.

Source notes

Joseph H. Engbeck, Jr., By the People, For the People: The Work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in California State Parks, 1933-1941. (Sacramento: California State Parks, 2002), pp. 89-94.

Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on February 19, 2023.