Bubblegum alley 70 feet long 15 foot high
Bubblegum alley 70 feet long 15 foot high, San Luis Obisopo is a beautiful place to spend a weekend, or even stay longer if you can afford it. It has hiking, wineries, shopping, breweries and a nice downtown shopping area where Bubblegum Alley is located.
This small alley is almost always full of people and its gum wall is like an ever changing, living organism with new pieces of gum being added hundreds of times a day. While the shear amount of gum is kind of gross this wall has a fun history and is a great place to take pictures with the kids.
Bubblegum alley in San Luis Obispo is a 15-foot high and 70-foot long alley lined with chewed gum left by passers-by. The locally created, “most-talked-about landmark” covers a stretch of 20 meters between 733 and 734 Higuera Street in downtown San Luis Obispo. Some historians believe that the tradition of the Alley started after WWII as a San Luis Obispo High School graduating class event.
Others believe it to have started in the late 1950s as rivalry between San Luis Obispo High School and Cal Poly students. As soon as the Poly students suspected that the high school was trying to out-do them on the gum walls, the college students stepped up their game and immediately became more creative, thus launching Bubblegum Alley.
In any case, by the 1970s Bubblegum Alley was well under way. When shop owners complained that it was “unsanitary and disgusting”, the alley underwent a full cleaning. The gum graffiti survived two full cleanings in the ’70s, but when, in 1996, the BIA attempted to have another full cleaning, it was not passed, so the gum wall is here to stay for the immediate future.
This small alley is almost always full of people and its gum wall is like an ever changing, living organism with new pieces of gum being added hundreds of times a day. While the shear amount of gum is kind of gross this wall has a fun history and is a great place to take pictures with the kids.
Bubblegum alley in San Luis Obispo is a 15-foot high and 70-foot long alley lined with chewed gum left by passers-by. The locally created, “most-talked-about landmark” covers a stretch of 20 meters between 733 and 734 Higuera Street in downtown San Luis Obispo. Some historians believe that the tradition of the Alley started after WWII as a San Luis Obispo High School graduating class event.
Others believe it to have started in the late 1950s as rivalry between San Luis Obispo High School and Cal Poly students. As soon as the Poly students suspected that the high school was trying to out-do them on the gum walls, the college students stepped up their game and immediately became more creative, thus launching Bubblegum Alley.
In any case, by the 1970s Bubblegum Alley was well under way. When shop owners complained that it was “unsanitary and disgusting”, the alley underwent a full cleaning. The gum graffiti survived two full cleanings in the ’70s, but when, in 1996, the BIA attempted to have another full cleaning, it was not passed, so the gum wall is here to stay for the immediate future.
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