California’s first constitution was written in Colton Hall in 1849. The building has served in many roles, including the city hall and courthouse. Today Colton Hall houses county offices and a museum with a re-creation of the meeting room where the state constitution was drafted. Attached to the side of the building, the Old Monterey Jail was constructed with heavy...
John Ernst Steinbeck died in New York City on December 20, 1968. In accordance with his wish, Elaine Steinbeck returned her husband’s ashes to California for burial in his home town. They were interred in a plot together with his mother, father, sister Mary, and Uncle Will. Elaine joined them in 2003. This is one of two Hamilton family plots...
Steinbeck purchased writing materials and household items from Holman’s Department Store in Pacific Grove. Green ink on sale at 5¢ for two lasted to page 167 of his manuscript for To A God Unknown. The sale being over, blue ink for the remainder cost 10¢ a bottle. He later paid 82¢ for a ledger notebook for The Pastures of Heaven....
Established in 1892 at Pacific Grove’s Lover’s Point as the first marine laboratory on the West Coast, the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University moved to Cabrillo Point in 1917. The new location is also known as China Point as from the 1850s to 1906 it was occupied by a Chinese fishing village. Steinbeck started exploring the rocks and sandy...
The capital of Spanish California, Monterey’s downtown State Historic Park preserves a rich heritage of adobe buildings dating from that era. The regional tourism industry developed around the Hotel Del Monte resort and began a long association with artistic, literary, and entertainment characters. The Cannery Row sardine canning district that dominated local business and politics in the first half of...
Steinbeck’s father built this small three-room cottage as a vacation home in 1903. The family spent many weekends here just a short walk from their maternal grandmother’s house on Central Avenue and few blocks from Monterey Bay. In 1930 Steinbeck and his new bride moved into the cottage where they lived on Carol’s secretarial income and an allowance of $25...
These are actually two wharves in Monterey: one bustling with tourists who shop for souvenirs and do the usual touristy stuff, and a neighboring pier (Wharf No. 2) with real-life fishing trawlers and marine-related enterprises. Both have seafood restaurants and snack bars and great views of the bay and the seals, otters and sea lions that swim around the rocks....
The Lone Cypress® is so iconic, the Pebble Beach Company registered it as its official trademark emblem. More than 250 years old, the tree stands as a symbol of survival — it sprouts from rocks (go figure) and has weathered many a storm. It’s anchored by steel cables to a rock to keep it from falling over. You can see...