The City of San Luis Obispo serves as the commercial, governmental and cultural hub of California’s Central Coast. One of California’s oldest communities, it began with the founding of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa in 1772 by Father Junípero Serra as the fifth mission in the California chain of 21 missions. The mission was named after Saint Louis, a 13th Century Bishop of Toulouse, France. (San Luis Obispo is Spanish for "St. Louis, the Bishop".) It was first incorporated in 1856 as a General Law City, and became a Charter City in