Octagon Barn

An historic dairy that fell into disrepair, the Octoagon Barn was purchased and revitalied for the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County. It’s now an amazing set of four building, including the barn itself that is used for nonprofit events, weddings, and as an event center. Plenty of parking, open and inviting spaces, great signs that explain the history. Historical tours by appointment. Worth a visit if they are having an event.

I loved the overall ambiance of the venue! Madison is super easy to work with and was super patient with my organization and myself. If you are looking for an amazing venue choice, you have found your place. We were in the milking parlor, and this was perfect for our needs, the technology in the venue is very updated, and worked perfectly! We will be going back next year, as we LOVED IT! Here is a little bit of what our event looked like, and like I said, I loved it, and so did the guests!

Photographing a recent wedding at The Octagon Barn was an incredible experience. The venue's various buildings and spacious grounds make it an excellent choice for weddings. The site boasts a plethora of locations for wedding ceremonies. I'm eagerly looking forward to capturing many more weddings at this stunning location. -Burlap & Oak Wedding Photography-

Repair Cafe Joe tech helped with my Osterizer blender finding a dead fuse that may be hard to find a new one. Garimaldi bike repairman referred me to Bike Kitchen and Miner's Hardware to search for a bike nut for a chainstay bolt, and Google search

Today was the grand re-opening. There were a number of exhibits, food, drink, and some music playing for the visitors. The grounds are impressive and I like how it it spread out over a number of areas. The barn itself is pretty cool inside and impressive. You can tell there was a lot of pride and thought into the remodel. This would be a great place to host or have an event and really enjoyed my first experience at the octagon barn.

Beautiful and rustic at the same time. The Octagon Barn in San Luis Obispo is an amazing spot for a wedding. As a local private bartending company in SLO we love all the unique venues SLO has to offer. Thank you to the Octagon Barn for providing yet another awesome venue to work at. Cheers, Brian

Lovely spot to have a picnic. There are tables available.

I had the privilege of working at The Octagon Barn as a wedding planner, and I’m absolutely thrilled with the experience! The venue itself is breathtaking, and what sets it apart is their inclusion of event essentials like chairs, rounds, and banquet tables, which is a significant cost-saving advantage for our clients. The venue manager deserves special mention for their outstanding commitment to ensuring every event runs seamlessly. Their teamwork and dedication are truly remarkable. I’m eagerly looking forward to the opportunity to plan another wedding here. The Octagon Barn is a beautiful, practical venue with an exceptional team – an absolute must for any event. Highly recommended! Candice Renner (owner of Heyday Weddings & Events)

This was our second time having an event at the Octagon Barn. The venue is a favorite of our attendees, with easy access, parking, clean bathrooms, and being in a wonderful, historic site. Madison is a dream to work with, allowing us access in advance for setup, and being there throughout the event to help troubleshoot any situations that came up. The community is very fortunate that we have the SLO Land Conservancy that renovated these buildings and makes them available for rent.

This venue blew us away the second we got there. It was everything we needed all in one place. Madison was amazing to work with, and made the entire wedding weekend smooth for us. Allowing us to drop items off when we got into town, to always being present asking if we needed anything or help with anything. It was easy for us to coordinate with rental companies, and to plan for pick ups and drop offs. This venue has the versatility to be used in so many ways. Multiple areas for hosting events, clean, beautiful views, and just minutes away from downtown. This place will always be special to me, and my family. We will always look forward into going back and visiting anytime we are in town.

The Octagon barn was such an amazing venue for our 200 guest wedding. With the price and everything that was included in renting the space, it was a no brainer! Madison is the coordinator the venue and she made our lives so easy. She always answered emails promptly, make time for us to visit the venue before the big day, and worked with us and our vendors for drop offs and pick up! Logistically, it was a breeze and she was wonderful to work with. The venue itself was absolutely stunning. They have done such a good job renovating it! The Barn was perfect for our reception and The Shed was perfect for our ceremony. But there are other buildings and locations onsite that would work for any wedding reception and ceremony configuration you could think of! I can't recommend this place enough! Thank you so much Madison and the Land Conservancy of SLO for such a lovely wedding venue!

An amazing wedding venue in San Luis Obispo! We just held our wedding there recently and have nothing but great things to say about the space and the staff. The space is very versatile offering you at least four different areas to host. We were married in the open area, held cocktail hour in the courtyard, had our reception in the barn, and the buffet lines in the milking parlor. The four different areas allowed the night to flow smoothly, especially as all areas are so close. Our guests, including our grandparents, had no issues walking to each new area. Aside from practicality, the venue is absolutely beautiful. It provides a blank canvas that does not require many decorations, however, if decor is your thing, it would be hard to find something that did not match seamlessly with the existing architecture. An added bonus is the historical significance of the property, something that was important to us, as my family has worked in the dairy industry for the past 80+ years. The venue manager, Madison (and Heather) were nothing but pleasant to work with! They were great resources to us throughout our entire wedding planning process. Madison is very prompt in her communication and made us feel that our wedding was in good hands. She provided needed reminders and any other information we needed. Overall a gem of a venue! Highly recommend!

Too bad they weren't open; we would really liked to see the inside of this landmark. It would be nice if they posted operating hours!

The Octagon Barn of San Luis Obispo is a historical and cultural structure. Built in 1906, it served as a dairy operation until the 1950s. In 1997, the Land Conservatory of San Luis Obispo County began to restore the barn for public use. As of this review, the restoration of the barn is almost complete. The barn (approximately 5000 sq. ft.) is made of redwood timbers and has a new, custom shingled replacement redwood roof. There is a cupola on top reaching over 40 feet above the floor. Cupolas are often used to provide a look out or to admit light and air into a structure. There are two additional buildings on the property. The barn is important for 4 reasons: history & culture, architecture, recreation & education, and in December 2013, the barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This iconic landmark on South Higuera is one of only two octagonal barns left in California. The octagon barn will be a community gathering place to promote history, agriculture, recreation, and sustainability. It will host fundraisers, performances, and private events such as weddings.

We had an amazing experience at the Octagon Barn for our annual fundraising dinner and auction! Not only was the venue beautiful, but we were able to rent the entire facility and building which allowed us to use multiple spaces for the event. The venue also came at a fantastic price, comparatively to other venues we have used in the area. The courtyard area was the perfect space for our silent auction and social hour. There was plenty of space for all of our auction tables, vendors and guests. We then utilized the main barn for our dinner and live auction which had plenty of space for our 200 guests, large stage and two screens for our program. Madison is the Venue Manager and she was AMAZING from start to finish! She knew so many details of the facility and helped us so much with our planning process and the day of logistics. She went above and beyond to help with anything we needed. She truly wanted our event to be a huge success as much as we did! We couldn't recommend the Octagon Barn more! Many of our guests had never been to the venue and loved everything about it. Check them out for your next event!

So much fun at the Christmas Crafts Market at the Octagon Barn Center yesterday.! I had been circling the new park built around the restored barn for a while, trying to determine how to get in, then read about it being an event center on YELP. This is a large compound, with three buildings, and outdoor picnic tables, as well as a parking lot. This event was lots of fun for the family, even in spite of the steady drizzle. People parked all along lower Higuera, and filled the two buildings used as the craft markets. We perused the crafts stalls inside the barn, and got to admire the wizard architecture of the structure. There were some tasty creative items available from local artisans, and the barn was festively decorated for the holidays. We also sampled some miraculous macaroons from the bakery, "Pardon My French," which is located in Grover Beach. These tidbits of delight were so light and delicious, they were like tiny clouds of flavor, created by an angel. I am going to run to the bakery for more goodies to celebrate my holidays! This is a lovingly restored, fun new venue for the Central Coast, and I will look forward to returning for more events!

Today was the grand re-opening. There were a number of exhibits, food, drink, and some music playing for the visitors. The grounds are impressive and I like how it it spread out over a number of areas. The barn itself is pretty cool inside and impressive. You can tell there was a lot of pride and thought into the remodel. This would be a great place to host or have an event and really enjoyed my first experience at the octagon barn.

This place is absolutely beautiful, the location, setting and everything provided, unfortunately our event was ruined by Heather, at first she was so nice seemed to intervene in our set up but was understandable, she then helped us a lot to get our event going, we were thankful for her comprehension and time. After our event was going she let us know that she was no longer going to intervene, that she wanted us to enjoy our beautiful day and we would see each other once the party was over (at 10pm). Before the party was over, Heather was being hysterical threatening to end our party even when it was all under control, saying she was never going to rent the place to Mexicans again. This is how my family and I saw things, heather wasn't doing us a favor, just like any other customer we were renting the place, we weren't their for free, I didn't get to enjoy my party, half of the time I was dealing with Heather, my guests were very annoyed by how much she was intervening, yes the place was beautiful but she HAD TO RUIN EVERYTHING. The party came to an end at 10pm, we all started cleaning, WE LEFT THE PLACE SPOTLESS, we spent an hour and thirty minutes cleaning the place everything was very well done, she had nothing to say about that, but she was very quick to charge us an extra $250 for the thirty minutes we spent CLEANING UP HER PLACE, because she had so many demands. Overall, she ended up keeping our $700 deposit, we didn't enjoy our party, we didn't end up keeping our money even though we left the place exactly how we received it, which was part of the deal. If you don't plan on dealing with the effects that come with renting a place to people with a party THEN DONT RENT IT, it's as simple as that.

The space is absolutely beautiful! Tons of great amenities - umbrellas for shade, picnic tables, meeting space with A/V and a kitchen. Heather was wonderful to work with - she was quick to respond and very flexible with our scheduling challenges. Looking forward to using this space again soon!

Well I've been driving past that octagon Barn on Lower Higuera for about 40 years. I even work just up the street for 20 years. And for most of that time the barn just sat there, I guess it's still just sitting there if you want to get technical, but not much had changed. The people who decided to save the Octagon barn and make it part of our city with a little park around it and much more use have great vision and are doing a real community service. I was glad to see in the last year or to that there have been events here including the film festival showing special features in the barn. If you get a chance to go to a event here please do. It's an eye-opener to see what the plan is for the future and I can hardly wait. You know those architectural renderings of the future are so beautiful, but the real Beauty will come with the execution of that plan. The Octagon Barn is now a stable part of the history of San Luis Obispo. Thank you to all the people who made that possible