The 2003 San Simeon Earthquake and the Clock Tower
Near Paso Robles, California
On the morning of December twenty-second, two thousand three, at fifteen minutes past eleven, the ground beneath Paso Robles heaved violently. A magnitude six point six earthquake, centered near San Simeon on the coast about seven miles away, sent shockwaves through the historic downtown. The worst damage struck the Acorn Building, an unreinforced brick structure built in eighteen ninety-two that carried the town's beloved clock tower.
As the building collapsed into the street, falling debris killed two women: Jennifer Myrick, who was just nineteen years old, and Marilyn Zafuto, who was fifty-five. Roughly forty other people were injured, and dozens of old masonry buildings across downtown were damaged. It was the most destructive earthquake in the United States since the Northridge quake of nineteen ninety-four.
Yet there was a lesson in the rubble. Investigators found that not a single building that had received earthquake retrofitting collapsed. The tragedy pushed the city to strengthen its remaining historic buildings.
Today, a memorial fountain in the downtown City Park honors the two women who died. If you stand in the park, you are steps from where the clock tower fell, in a downtown that rebuilt itself stronger than before.
