About Santa Margarita CDP, California
Santa Margarita is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. The population was 1,259 at the 2010 census. It is part of the San Luis Obispo–Paso Robles–Arroyo Grande metropolitan statistical area.
The community is named after Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, a Mexican land grant of 1836. In 1840, the grant’s owner, Jose Maria de Jesus Pico, built an adobe house near a large spring in the Las Flores Creek watershed. The house and ranch served as a stopping place for travelers on El Camino Real between Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa and Pueblo de Los Angeles.
Pico sold the rancho in 1850, and it changed hands several times before being acquired by James and Daniel Blackburn in 1858. The Blackburns built a new adobe house and developed the rancho into a successful sheep operation. In 1878, they expanded the rancho with the purchase of adjoining Rancho Canada del Pinole.
The Blackburns sold the rancho in 1886, and it was subdivided and developed for agriculture and dairy farming. The town of Santa Margarita was established in 1924.
Santa Margarita is located at 35°20′28″N 120°26′53″W / 35.34111°N 120.44806°W / 35.34111; -120.44806 (35.341052, -120.447968).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²), all of it land.