In 1873 entrepreneur John Harford built a wharf at the westerly end of San Luis Bay to serve growing cargo shipping and passenger travel on the Central Coast. The Port Harford pier extended 2,000 feet into the bay and linked docked steamships by horse-drawn rail to the narrow gauge Pacific Coast Railroad terminus at Avila Beach. In 1876 the three-story Hotel Marre was built at the foot of the pier; a tidal wave destroyed it in 1878, but it was soon rebuilt. In the 1880's steam engines appeared on the pier's rail line. By 1913 the Port San Luis breakwater was complete, creating safe anchorage at the port, but in the following decades a weakened economy and a shift of shipping to land routes reduced commerce until the railroad stopped operating in 1942. By the 1950's the port had become chiefly a fishing, boating, and tourist destination, and in 1954 San Luis Obispo voters established a Harbor District for Port San Luis. In 1970 a restaurant and bar were first developed in the old railroad building on the pier, and after the 1973 replacement of the storm-damaged railroad bridge over San Luis Creek, facilities on and around the pier expanded to include more restaurants, fish markets, and services for fishing and recreational boating under the Port San Luis Harbor District.