Great Pacific Iron Works

One of Ventura’s foremost pioneers, William Dewey Hobson, arrived in the 1850s and participated in many successful business ventures, including mining, cattle ranching, real estate and meat packing. The Hobson Brothers Meat Packing Company, established in the 1870s, provided sausage and cut meat for delivery to most parts of the County. The company built this industrial Mission Revival style building in 1923. Chouinard Equipment opened their first retail store, the Great Pacific Iron Works, in this building in 1973. In 1976, Chouinard introduced a line of clothing called Chouinard Equipment for Alpinists. The clothing line was later renamed Patagonia, and in 1985, it was spun off as a separate company which now uses the building as its flagship store. It is a City of San Buenaventura Historic Landmark.

Ventura, Ventura County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt