Monterey

Monterey is the largest and most important town in the Monterey Bay area. It is one of California’s oldest Spanish settlements, originally founded in 1770, and the state’s first capital. It was also the site of California’s first Constitutional Convention in 1849.

Old Monterey

An exploration of Old Monterey is like a walk through California history. There are more than 40 old adobes and supremely historic buildings here, dotted along the city’s “path of history” in the Monterey State Historic Park, some preserved in their original state, and others restored to their former glory, with 18th- and 19th-century furnishings and artifacts and well-tended period gardens.

Custom House Plaza

Located near Monterey’s waterfront, across from Fisherman’s Wharf, the plaza is a good place to start any tour of Old Monterey. Here you’ll find the old Custom House, a two-story Monterey-style adobe, dating from 1814 and believed to be the oldest government building on the West Coast. This is also the site of Commodore John Drake Sloat’s landing, where he first raised the American flag and claimed California for the U.S.

Also on the plaza are the Pacific House—another Mexican-era adobe—and the Maritime Museum, the latter with a wealth of maritime artifacts and and exhibits, including large scale models of Sebastian Vizcaino’s ship, the San Diego, Commodore Sloat’s flagship, the Savannah. The museum also houses a center with exhibits depicting the history of Monterey’s sardine and whaling industries, its shipwrecks, and the history and culture of the native Ohlone Indians.

On the plaza, too, is Casa del Oro, another Monterey-style adobe, small, picturesque, dating from 1845 and once used as a gold depository. It now houses the old Joseph Boston Store, a gift shop of sorts, with old-fashioned candy and items of local interest.

Nearby, just to the north of the Custom House Plaza are the First Brick House and the Old Whaling Station, both dating from 1847, the latter with a walkway made entirely from whale vertebrae; and adjoining to the southeast of the plaza is the contemporary, yet delightful, Monterey Convention Center Plaza, not with any historical merit, but quite in keeping with the Monterey style of architecture and flavor. The plaza itself is brick-paved, flanked by the 547-room Doubletree Hotel—one of the largest luxury hotels in the area—and the 20,000-square-foot convention center. There is a 7-foot bronze statue at the center of the plaza, that of Captain Don Gaspar de Portola, co-founder of Monterey, who established here in 1770 the first of California’s four Spanish presidios. The statue was a bicentennial gift to the City of Monterey, from King Juan Carlos I of Spain, in 1970. It was sculpted and cast in the Spanish province of Lerida, birthplace of Portola.

Fisherman’s Wharf

Monterey’s Fisherman’s Wharf, located across from Custom House, also holds considerable interest, with its light- hearted, haphazard jumble of gift and souvenir shops, kiosks, seafood restaurants and fish markets. It is a popular spot, where you can generally see sea lions lurking amid the pilings directly beneath the piers. Sportfishing trips and whale-watching cruises also depart from here.

Calle Principal and Alvarado Street

Old Monterey is largely centered around Calle Principal and Alvarado Street, two of the town’s oldest streets, which dash off southward from the Custom House Plaza and Fisherman’s Wharf, directly into the center of the city. Several of Monterey’s old adobes and historic buildings are located along these and a handful of nearby streets.

On Alvarado Street are the Jacinto Rodriguez Adobe, dating from the 1840s; Casa Sanchez, a single-story Mexican-era adobe, built partly in the late 1820s; Casa Alvarado, a larger, two-story adobe, dating from 1834; and the Mission Revival-style Berquist Building, designed by noted California architect William Weeks, built in 1914.

On Calle Principal, at the south end of the street, stands the historic Casa Gutierrez, originally built in 1841 as a private residence; and just off Calle Principal, on Jefferson Street, you can visit the splendid, Monterey Colonial-style Larkin House, a large, two-story adobe, dating from 1835 and now restored to its former elegance, with original period furnishings and decor.

More Monterey Adobes

Among other historic buildings of interest are the Fremont Adobe on Hartnell Street, dating from the early 1840s; the Stevenson House on Houston Street. also from 1840, where in 1879 Scottish-born writer Robert Louis Stevenson lived briefly while courting his future wife, Fanny Osbourne; the Monterey-Colonial style Cooper- Molera Adobe, with its 2-acre walled-in compound, dating from the 1820s, located at the corner of Munras and Polk streets; and the Royal Presidio Chapel on Church Street, dating from 1795 and believed to be the oldest existing building in Monterey still in use.

Pacific Street, which runs parallel to Calle Principal and Alvarado Street, also holds some interest: on it are the Capitular Hall, dating from 1834; Casa Serrano, originally built in 1845; the Merritt House, a two-story adobe dating from the late 1830s; and Casa Soberanes, one of the loveliest of Monterey’s old adobes, dating from the 1840s, with beautifully-kept 19th-century gardens.

Also of interest in the area is a small, well-preserved section of Old Monterey, wedged between Pacific Street and Dutra streets, with Jefferson and Madison streets to the north and south of it, respectively. Here you can search out the Alvarado and Vasquez adobes, both dating from the 1830s, the Underwood-Brown Adobe (1834), the Old Monterey Jail (1854), Gordon House (circa 1850), Casa de la Torre (1842), and Colton Hall, dating from 1848 and considered to be among America’s most distinguished historic buildings.