By Lynne Schmitz
The Historic Rios-Caledonia Adobe is the home of a very impressive safe that once was used in one of the oldest buildings in San Miguel downtown on Mission Street. In its early days, the building housed a store, Seaman and Harvey General Merchandise, which was purchased by Arthur Thralls and Fred Metzler in 1908. In 1909, Fred Metzler left the business and Henry Twisselman became Art Thralls new business partner. The business was renamed to Thralls and Co.
In 1917, they built a Citizens Bank of San Miguel Branch Office in the store and installed a heavy, sturdy safe. It was purchased from the Cary Safe Company, which was founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1878. The agent who sold the safe to them was located in San Francisco, and after the 1906 earthquake, sales of Cary safes greatly improved because they survived the historic earthquake, whereas others did not. The safe was further secured in a cement case entered by two locked doors. The second door was booby-trapped with a canister of tear gas that would dislodge and break if the door wasn’t opened by a special procedure. The safe remained when the Bank moved to a new location.
In 1934, Thralls’ health was failing, and Twisselman became sole owner of the business. In 1935, he sold to Fred Witcosky, who renamed it Witcosky’s Complete Food Store. He was a butcher by trade and focused on the grocery business rather than general merchandise. It was a successful and popular family business for 57 years. One night, there was an attempted robbery, which set off an alarm that rang in Gib Buckman’s home. The burglars managed to open both safety doors, the tear gas deployed and they were caught in flight. The Sheriff informed the owners it was illegal to have such a trap, so it was removed. In 1992, Witcosky sold the business. It remained a grocery store under the Witcosky name until sold again in 2006 when it was turned into ‘The Ranch,’ a honky-tonk of entertainment, dining, and dancing. The new owners extensively remodeled the store interior.
They released the safe from its case and continued to use it until their business closed. The store has been vacant since then. In 2018, Gib and Laverne Witcosky Buckman were able to purchase the safe and moved it to storage in the old San Miguel Flouring Mill Warehouse. It took three men to move it. Mike Van Horn, Gib Buckman, and Everett Reasons did the job. In 2020, it was donated and moved to the Rios-Caledonia Adobe by a moving company, where it’s on display.
Mark your calendars: The Friends of the Adobes and Pleasant Valley Cemetery District will hold their annual Memorial Service at 2 p.m. at the historic Estrella Adobe Church at 548 Airport Road, Paso Robles, on Sunday, May 25 (Memorial Day Weekend) from 2 to 4 p.m. to honor the pioneers of the Estrella Plains.
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