Monterey Peninsula
Encyclopedia
The Monterey Peninsula is located on the central California
coast and comprises the cities of Monterey
, Carmel
, and Pacific Grove
, and unincorporated areas of Monterey County
including the resort and community of Pebble Beach
.
was founded in 1777 and marked the beginning of settlement in upper Las Californias
in New Spain
. The city became the capital of Spanish and later Mexican Alta California
. Up until the mid 19th century the city served as California's cultural and political center. Monterey is home to some of California's oldest buildings, adobe
s, as well as California's first theatre.
Monterey was founded in 1770 by missionary Junípero Serra
and explorer Gaspar de Portolà
. Portolà was also the founder of San Diego (1769), and the Spanish governor of Las Californias (1767–1770) which included the Baja California Peninsula
and the alta or upper mainland. Portolà erected the Presidio of Monterey to defend the port against an expected Russian trading and settlement invasion. Monterey served as the capital of upper Las Californias and Alta California from 1777 to 1848, under the flags of Spain
, independent Mexico
, and the United States
as a territory. The city was originally the only port of entry for taxable goods in California. All shipments into California by sea were required to go through the Custom House, the oldest governmental building in the state, and California's Historic Landmark Number One. Built in 3 phases, construction on the Custom House began in 1814 under the Spanish, the center section under Mexican rule in 1827, with the lower end completed by the United States in 1846. Monterey was also the site of the July 7, 1846, Battle of Monterey
during the Mexican-American War. It was on this date that John D. Sloat
, Commodore in the United States Navy
, raised the U.S. flag
over the Monterey Custom House and claimed California for the United States.
In addition, many California "firsts" occurred in Monterey. These include California's first theater, brick house, publicly funded school, public building, public library, and printing press, which printed The Californian
, the first newspaper. Colton Hall
, built in 1849 by Walter Colton
, was originally a public school and government meeting place. It also hosted California's first constitutional convention. Today it houses a museum, while adjacent buildings serve as the seat of local government. The Monterey post office opened in 1849. Monterey incorporated in 1889.
The city has a noteworthy history as a center for California painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such painters as Arthur Frank Mathews
, Armin Hansen
, Xavier Martinez
, Rowena Meeks Abdy
and Percy Gray
lived or visited to pursue painting in the style of either En plein air
or Tonalism
. In addition to painters many noted authors through the years have also lived in and around the Monterey area such as John Steinbeck
, Robinson Jeffers
, Robert A. Heinlein
, Henry Miller
, Ed Ricketts
, and Robert Louis Stevenson
. More recently, Monterey has been recognized for its significant involvement in post-secondary learning of languages other than English and its major role in delivering translation and interpretation services around the world. In November 1995, California
Governor Pete Wilson
proclaimed Monterey as "The Language Capital of the World".
was founded in 1875 by a group of Methodists who modeled the town after Ocean Grove, New Jersey
. In time, the butterflies, fragrant pines and fresh sea air
brought others to the Pacific Grove Retreat to rest and meditate. The initial meeting of the Pacific Coast branch of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle was held in Pacific Grove in June 1879. Modelled after the Methodist Sunday school teachers’ training camp established in 1874 at Lake Chautauqua, N.Y., this location became part of a nationwide educational network. In November 1879, after the summer campers returned home, Robert Louis Stevenson
wandered into the deserted campgrounds: "I have never been in any place so dreamlike. Indeed, it was not so much like a deserted town as like a scene upon the stage by daylight, and with no one on the boards." Today, Stevenson School
in nearby Pebble Beach is named after the author. The Pacific Grove post office opened in 1886, closed later that year, and was re-opened in 1887. Pacific Grove incorporated in 1889.
Pacific Grove, like Carmel-by-the-Sea and Monterey
, became an artists' haven in the 1890s and subsequent period. Artists of the En plein air
school in both Europe and the United States were seeking an outdoor venue which had natural beauty, so that Pacific Grove was a magnet for this movement. William Adam
was an English painter who first moved to Monterey and then decided on Pacific Grove for his home in 1906. At about the same time Eugen Neuhaus, a German painter, arrived in Pacific Grove with his new bride. Charles B. Judson was an artist of aristocratic lineage who painted in Pacific Grove over a long period of time beginning in 1907; Judson's mural
s decorate the halls of the California Academy of Sciences
. For a number of years, John Steinbeck
lived in a cottage in Pacific Grove owned by his father, Ernest, who was Monterey County Treasurer. The cottage still stands on a quiet side street, without any plaque or special sign, virtually overlooked by most Steinbeck fans. In Steinbeck's book Sweet Thursday
, a chapter is dedicated to describing a (probably fictional) rivalry that arose among the town's residents over the game of roque
.
The Point Piños Light in Pacific Grove is the oldest continually operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States. It was built in 1855, and has served as an aid to navigation ever since.
In 1905 the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club was formed to support and produce artistic works. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
the village was inundated with musicians, writers, painters other artists turning to the established artist colony after the bay city was destroyed. The new residents were offered home lots - ten dollars down, little or no interest, and whatever they could pay on a monthly basis. In 1907 the town's first cultural center and theatre, the Carmel Arts and Crafts Clubhouse, was built. Poets Austin and Sterling performed their "private theatricals" there.
In 1911, the town's rich Shakespearean tradition began with a production of Twelfth Night, directed by Garnet Holme of UC Berkeley and featuring future mayors Perry Newberry and Herbert Heron, with settings designed by artist DeNeale Morgan. By 1914, the club had achieved national recognition, with an article The Mercury Herald commenting "...a fever of activity seems to have seized the community and each newcomer is immediately inoculated and begins with great enthusiasm to do something... with plays, studios and studies...".
In 1913, The Arts and Crafts Club began organizing lessons for aspiring painters, actors & craftsmen. Some of the most prominent painters in the United States, such as William Merritt Chase
, Xavier Martinez
, Mary DeNeale Morgan and C. Chapel Judson offered six weeks of instruction for $15. Jack London
describes the artists' colony in his novel, The Valley of the Moon; among the noted artists lived or frequented the village were; Mary Austin, Armin Hansen
, George Sterling
, Ambrose Bierce
, Upton Sinclair
, Robinson Jeffers
, Sinclair Lewis
, Sydney Yard, Ferdinand Burgdorff, William Frederic Ritschel
, William Keith
, Percy Gray
, Arnold Genthe
, and Nora May French
.
In 1924, the Arts and Crafts Hall was built on a site adjacent to the original clubhouse. This new facility was renamed numerous times including the Abalone Theatre, the Filmarte, the Carmel Playhouse and, finally, the Studio Theatre of the Golden Bough. The original clubhouse, along with the adjoining theatre, burned down in 1949. The facilities were rebuilt as a two-theatre complex, opening in 1952 as the Golden Bough Playhouse.
and Sweet Thursday
by famed local author John Steinbeck
. By the early 1940s, however, the fishing industry was dealt a devastating blow when the heavily overfished
waters did not yield the amounts of fish needed to keep the canneries in the green. The end of big business fishing on the Monterey County was the beginning of several conservation efforts which eventually led to the creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
.
, and is now the central building of the Naval Postgraduate School
.
The hotel's park reservation, originally used for hunting and other outdoor activities, became Pebble Beach
, an unincorporated community and well-known golf resort area. The famous 17-Mile Drive
was originally designed as a local excursion for visitors to the Del Monte, in which they could take in the historic sights of Monterey and Pacific Grove and the scenery of what would become Pebble Beach.
Today, tourism is serves as the Peninsula's main industry. The old Cannery Row is a tourist center lined with boutiques, restaurants, and hotels.
and Monterey Cypress are relict
stands, i.e. species that once extended more widely in the mesic
climate of the late Pleistocene
epoch, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and wetter conditions along the coast ranges during the hotter, drier early and middle Holocene
epoch between 6000 and 2000 BC.
A variety of natural habitats are found on the Monterey Peninsula: littoral
zone and sand dunes; closed cone pine
forest; and Monterey Cypress
. During the early 1900s, Willis Linn Jepson
characterized the forests on the Monterey Peninsula as the "most important silva ever", and encouraged Samuel F. B. Morse of the Del Monte Properties Company to explore the possibilities of preserving the unique forest communities. The dune area is also important, as it hosts endangered species
such as the vascular
plants Seaside birds beak and Eastwoods Ericameria
. The closed cone pine forest habitat is dominated by Monterey pine, Knobcone Pine
and Bishop Pine
, and contains the rare Monterey manzanita
and endangered Hickman's potentilla and Yadon's piperia
; rare plants inhabiting chaparral habitat in Monterey are: Hickman's onion and Sandmat manzanita
. Other rare plants on the peninsula are: Hutchinson's larkspur
, Tidestrom lupine; Gardner's yampah
and Monterey Knotweed
, Edward F. Ricketts State Marine Conservation Area
and Asilomar State Marine Reserve
are marine protected areas in Monterey Bay. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.
, 8.5% Hispanic or Latino, 6.0% Asian or Pacific Islander and 1.8% were African American
. The Peninsula was considerably more affluent than the national average, with the percentage of household with six figure incomes being 60% higher and the percentage of household with incomes of less than $25,000 being 54% lower than the national average. In terms of income distribution 19.8% of households had incomes of less than $25,000, while 27.2% had incomes between $25,000 and $50,000, 21.1% incomes between $50,000 and $75,000, 11.9% incomes between $75,000 and $100,000 and 19.8% had incomes exceeding $100,000 compred to compared to 30.5%, 25.8%, 18.4%, 10.3% and 12.3% at the national level, respectively.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
coast and comprises the cities of Monterey
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
, Carmel
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, often called simply Carmel, is a small city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, the town is known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history...
, and Pacific Grove
Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, USA, with a population of 15,041 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,522 as of the 2000 census...
, and unincorporated areas of Monterey County
Monterey County, California
Monterey County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California, its northwestern section forming the southern half of Monterey Bay. The northern half of the bay is in Santa Cruz County. As of 2010, the population was 415,057. The county seat and largest city is Salinas...
including the resort and community of Pebble Beach
Pebble Beach, California
Pebble Beach is an unincorporated community in Monterey County, California. It lies at an elevation of 3 feet . Pebble Beach is a small coastal resort destination, home to the famous golf course, Pebble Beach Golf Links....
.
Monterey
The city of MontereyMonterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
was founded in 1777 and marked the beginning of settlement in upper Las Californias
Las Californias
The Californias, or in — - was the name given by the Spanish to their northwestern territory of New Spain, comprising the present day states of Baja California and Baja California Sur on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico; and the present day U.S. state of California in the United States of...
in New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
. The city became the capital of Spanish and later Mexican Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
. Up until the mid 19th century the city served as California's cultural and political center. Monterey is home to some of California's oldest buildings, adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
s, as well as California's first theatre.
Monterey was founded in 1770 by missionary Junípero Serra
Junípero Serra
Blessed Junípero Serra, O.F.M., , known as Fra Juníper Serra in Catalan, his mother tongue was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta California of the Las Californias Province in New Spain—present day California, United States. Fr...
and explorer Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...
. Portolà was also the founder of San Diego (1769), and the Spanish governor of Las Californias (1767–1770) which included the Baja California Peninsula
Baja California Peninsula
The Baja California peninsula , is a peninsula in northwestern Mexico. Its land mass separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California. The Peninsula extends from Mexicali, Baja California in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur in the south.The total area of the Baja California...
and the alta or upper mainland. Portolà erected the Presidio of Monterey to defend the port against an expected Russian trading and settlement invasion. Monterey served as the capital of upper Las Californias and Alta California from 1777 to 1848, under the flags of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, independent Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a territory. The city was originally the only port of entry for taxable goods in California. All shipments into California by sea were required to go through the Custom House, the oldest governmental building in the state, and California's Historic Landmark Number One. Built in 3 phases, construction on the Custom House began in 1814 under the Spanish, the center section under Mexican rule in 1827, with the lower end completed by the United States in 1846. Monterey was also the site of the July 7, 1846, Battle of Monterey
Battle of Monterey
-Preliminaries:Prior to the Mexican-American War the Californio forces had already driven the Mexican appointed Governor Manuel Micheltorena and most of his soldiers from Alta California...
during the Mexican-American War. It was on this date that John D. Sloat
John D. Sloat
John Drake Sloat was a commodore in the United States Navy who, in 1846, claimed California for the United States.-Life:...
, Commodore in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, raised the U.S. flag
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
over the Monterey Custom House and claimed California for the United States.
In addition, many California "firsts" occurred in Monterey. These include California's first theater, brick house, publicly funded school, public building, public library, and printing press, which printed The Californian
The Californian (1840s newspaper)
The Californian was the first California newspaper.The Californian was first published in Monterey, California on August 15, 1846, by Alcalde Walter Colton and his friend Robert B. Semple, from a well-used Ramage printing press that Agustín V. Zamorano brought from Hawaii to Monterey in 1834....
, the first newspaper. Colton Hall
Colton Hall
Colton Hall, located in Monterey, California, was built in the 1840s by Walter Colton, who came to Monterey as a chaplain on Commodore Stockton's vessel and remained to become Monterey's first alcalde in the American Period....
, built in 1849 by Walter Colton
Walter Colton
Rev. Walter Colton was a Chaplain for the United States Navy, the Alcalde of Monterey, and the author of Three Years in California and Deck and Port. He was also co-publisher of California's first newspaper, The Californian....
, was originally a public school and government meeting place. It also hosted California's first constitutional convention. Today it houses a museum, while adjacent buildings serve as the seat of local government. The Monterey post office opened in 1849. Monterey incorporated in 1889.
The city has a noteworthy history as a center for California painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such painters as Arthur Frank Mathews
Arthur Frank Mathews
Arthur F. Mathews was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Trained as an architect and artist, he and his wife Lucia Kleinhans Mathews had a significant effect on the evolution of Californian art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
, Armin Hansen
Armin Hansen
Armin Hansen , native of San Francisco, is prominent American Painter of the En plein air school, best known for his marine canvases. His father Hermann Hansen was also a famous artist of the American West...
, Xavier Martinez
Xavier Martinez
Xavier Timoteo Martínez was a California artist active in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, and, after becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States, died in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California...
, Rowena Meeks Abdy
Rowena Meeks Abdy
Rowena Meeks Abdy was an American painter who flourished in Northern California in the early 20th century. Working in oil, watercolour and charcoal, she achieved prominence in the en plein air painting school and is held in several permanent collections of significant museums...
and Percy Gray
Percy Gray
Henry Percy Gray was an American painter. Gray was born into a San Francisco family endowed with a broad literary and artistic background. He studied under Arthur Frank Mathews at the San Francisco School of Design and later under William Merritt Chase...
lived or visited to pursue painting in the style of either En plein air
En plein air
En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism...
or Tonalism
Tonalism
Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style...
. In addition to painters many noted authors through the years have also lived in and around the Monterey area such as John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, Robinson Jeffers
Robinson Jeffers
John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Most of Jeffers' poetry was written in classic narrative and epic form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmental movement.-Life:Jeffers was born in...
, Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
, Ed Ricketts
Ed Ricketts
Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts commonly known as Ed Ricketts, was an American marine biologist, ecologist, and philosopher...
, and Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
. More recently, Monterey has been recognized for its significant involvement in post-secondary learning of languages other than English and its major role in delivering translation and interpretation services around the world. In November 1995, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
Governor Pete Wilson
Pete Wilson
Peter Barton "Pete" Wilson is an American politician from California. Wilson, a Republican, served as the 36th Governor of California , the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that included eight years as a United States Senator , eleven years as Mayor of San Diego and...
proclaimed Monterey as "The Language Capital of the World".
Pacific Grove
Pacific GrovePacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, USA, with a population of 15,041 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,522 as of the 2000 census...
was founded in 1875 by a group of Methodists who modeled the town after Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Grove is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Neptune Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. It had a population of 3,342 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean Jersey Shore, between Asbury Park to the north and Bradley Beach to the south...
. In time, the butterflies, fragrant pines and fresh sea air
Sea air
The air at or by the sea is traditionally thought to be healthy. This was variously attributed to iodine or ozone but its cleanliness or salt may be more significant....
brought others to the Pacific Grove Retreat to rest and meditate. The initial meeting of the Pacific Coast branch of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle was held in Pacific Grove in June 1879. Modelled after the Methodist Sunday school teachers’ training camp established in 1874 at Lake Chautauqua, N.Y., this location became part of a nationwide educational network. In November 1879, after the summer campers returned home, Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
wandered into the deserted campgrounds: "I have never been in any place so dreamlike. Indeed, it was not so much like a deserted town as like a scene upon the stage by daylight, and with no one on the boards." Today, Stevenson School
Stevenson School
Stevenson School is a private, coeducational PK–12 school for boarding and day students...
in nearby Pebble Beach is named after the author. The Pacific Grove post office opened in 1886, closed later that year, and was re-opened in 1887. Pacific Grove incorporated in 1889.
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
, became an artists' haven in the 1890s and subsequent period. Artists of the En plein air
En plein air
En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism...
school in both Europe and the United States were seeking an outdoor venue which had natural beauty, so that Pacific Grove was a magnet for this movement. William Adam
William Adam (artist)
William Constable Adam was an English born oil and watercolour painter who spent the last 33 years of his life in California, United States....
was an English painter who first moved to Monterey and then decided on Pacific Grove for his home in 1906. At about the same time Eugen Neuhaus, a German painter, arrived in Pacific Grove with his new bride. Charles B. Judson was an artist of aristocratic lineage who painted in Pacific Grove over a long period of time beginning in 1907; Judson's mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s decorate the halls of the California Academy of Sciences
California Academy of Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world. The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research, with exhibits and education becoming significant endeavors of the museum during the twentieth...
. For a number of years, John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
lived in a cottage in Pacific Grove owned by his father, Ernest, who was Monterey County Treasurer. The cottage still stands on a quiet side street, without any plaque or special sign, virtually overlooked by most Steinbeck fans. In Steinbeck's book Sweet Thursday
Sweet Thursday
Sweet Thursday is a 1954 novel by John Steinbeck. It is a sequel to Cannery Row and set in the years after the end of World War II. According to the author, "Sweet Thursday" is the day after Lousy Wednesday and the day before Waiting Friday....
, a chapter is dedicated to describing a (probably fictional) rivalry that arose among the town's residents over the game of roque
Roque
Roque is an American variant of croquet played on a hard, smooth surface. Popular in the first quarter of the 20th century and billed "the Game of the Century" by its enthusiasts, it was an Olympic sport in the 1904 Summer Games, replacing croquet from the previous games.-Roque court and...
.
The Point Piños Light in Pacific Grove is the oldest continually operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States. It was built in 1855, and has served as an aid to navigation ever since.
Carmel-by-the-Sea
In 1902 James Frank Devendorf and Frank Powers, on behalf of the Carmel Development Company, filed a new subdivision map of the core village that became Carmel-by-the-Sea. The Carmel post office opened the same year. In 1910, the Carnegie Institution established the Coastal Laboratory, and a number of scientists moved to the area. Carmel incorporated in 1916.1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
the village was inundated with musicians, writers, painters other artists turning to the established artist colony after the bay city was destroyed. The new residents were offered home lots - ten dollars down, little or no interest, and whatever they could pay on a monthly basis. In 1907 the town's first cultural center and theatre, the Carmel Arts and Crafts Clubhouse, was built. Poets Austin and Sterling performed their "private theatricals" there.
In 1911, the town's rich Shakespearean tradition began with a production of Twelfth Night, directed by Garnet Holme of UC Berkeley and featuring future mayors Perry Newberry and Herbert Heron, with settings designed by artist DeNeale Morgan. By 1914, the club had achieved national recognition, with an article The Mercury Herald commenting "...a fever of activity seems to have seized the community and each newcomer is immediately inoculated and begins with great enthusiasm to do something... with plays, studios and studies...".
In 1913, The Arts and Crafts Club began organizing lessons for aspiring painters, actors & craftsmen. Some of the most prominent painters in the United States, such as William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...
, Xavier Martinez
Xavier Martinez
Xavier Timoteo Martínez was a California artist active in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, and, after becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States, died in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California...
, Mary DeNeale Morgan and C. Chapel Judson offered six weeks of instruction for $15. Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
describes the artists' colony in his novel, The Valley of the Moon; among the noted artists lived or frequented the village were; Mary Austin, Armin Hansen
Armin Hansen
Armin Hansen , native of San Francisco, is prominent American Painter of the En plein air school, best known for his marine canvases. His father Hermann Hansen was also a famous artist of the American West...
, George Sterling
George Sterling
George Sterling was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated in Northern California as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the United States.-Biography:Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, the...
, Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
, Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
, Robinson Jeffers
Robinson Jeffers
John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Most of Jeffers' poetry was written in classic narrative and epic form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmental movement.-Life:Jeffers was born in...
, Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
, Sydney Yard, Ferdinand Burgdorff, William Frederic Ritschel
William Frederic Ritschel
William Frederic Ritschel was a California impressionist painter who was born in Nuremberg, Germany on July 11, 1864. As a youth, he worked as a sailor and began sketching seascapes. He studied art under Karl Raupp and Wilhelm von Kaulbach at the Royal Academy of Munich before immigrating to...
, William Keith
William Keith
William Keith may refer to:*William Keith of Galston , Scottish soldier during the Wars of Scottish Independence.*William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal*William Keith, 6th Earl Marischal , Scottish peer and naval officer...
, Percy Gray
Percy Gray
Henry Percy Gray was an American painter. Gray was born into a San Francisco family endowed with a broad literary and artistic background. He studied under Arthur Frank Mathews at the San Francisco School of Design and later under William Merritt Chase...
, Arnold Genthe
Arnold Genthe
Arnold Genthe was a photographer, best known for his photos of San Francisco's Chinatown, the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and his portraits of noted persons, from politicians and socialites to literary figures and entertainment celebrities.-Biography:Genthe was born in Berlin, Prussia, to Louise...
, and Nora May French
Nora May French
Nora May French was a California poet and member of the bohemian literary circles of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club which flourished after the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906....
.
In 1924, the Arts and Crafts Hall was built on a site adjacent to the original clubhouse. This new facility was renamed numerous times including the Abalone Theatre, the Filmarte, the Carmel Playhouse and, finally, the Studio Theatre of the Golden Bough. The original clubhouse, along with the adjoining theatre, burned down in 1949. The facilities were rebuilt as a two-theatre complex, opening in 1952 as the Golden Bough Playhouse.
Fishing Industry
In the late 19th century the fishing industry became the area's most profitable and important economic sector. Started by mostly Italian immigrants in Monterey and Chinese immigrants in Pacific Grove, the fishing industry flourished. By the 1930s canneries lined the northern shore of the Peninsula. These canneries were the setting for the novels Cannery RowCannery Row
Cannery Row is the waterfront street in the New Monterey section of Monterey, California. It is the site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories. The last cannery closed in 1973...
and Sweet Thursday
Sweet Thursday
Sweet Thursday is a 1954 novel by John Steinbeck. It is a sequel to Cannery Row and set in the years after the end of World War II. According to the author, "Sweet Thursday" is the day after Lousy Wednesday and the day before Waiting Friday....
by famed local author John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
. By the early 1940s, however, the fishing industry was dealt a devastating blow when the heavily overfished
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
waters did not yield the amounts of fish needed to keep the canneries in the green. The end of big business fishing on the Monterey County was the beginning of several conservation efforts which eventually led to the creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is a US Federally protected marine area offshore of California's central coast around Monterey Bay....
.
Tourism
While the fishing industry was very important to the area, so was tourism. The Hotel Del Monte, built in 1880, was the first true resort complex in the United States and was the forerunner to today's Pebble Beach Company. It became popular with the wealthy and influential of the day, and hosted guests from Theodore Roosevelt to Ernest Hemingway, as well as many early Hollywood stars. A train station was built in Monterey expressly for the purpose of bringing visitors to the resort, and the Del Monte name is still frequently seen around town. The Hotel Del Monte was requisitioned by the Navy at the beginning of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and is now the central building of the Naval Postgraduate School
Naval Postgraduate School
The Naval Postgraduate School is an accredited research university operated by the United States Navy. Located in Monterey, California, it grants master's degrees, Engineer's degrees and doctoral degrees...
.
The hotel's park reservation, originally used for hunting and other outdoor activities, became Pebble Beach
Pebble Beach, California
Pebble Beach is an unincorporated community in Monterey County, California. It lies at an elevation of 3 feet . Pebble Beach is a small coastal resort destination, home to the famous golf course, Pebble Beach Golf Links....
, an unincorporated community and well-known golf resort area. The famous 17-Mile Drive
17-Mile Drive
The 17 Mile Drive is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach, California, much of which hugs the Pacific coastline and passes famous golf courses and mansions. It also serves as the main road through the gated community of Pebble Beach. Inside this community, non-residents have to pay...
was originally designed as a local excursion for visitors to the Del Monte, in which they could take in the historic sights of Monterey and Pacific Grove and the scenery of what would become Pebble Beach.
Today, tourism is serves as the Peninsula's main industry. The old Cannery Row is a tourist center lined with boutiques, restaurants, and hotels.
Unique Flora and Natural History
The Monterey Peninsula has a high degree of species endemism. Additionally it presents a unique combination of species due to overlap of species with more northerly versus more southerly ranges. The Monterey Peninsula is influenced by a marine climate that is pronounced due to the upwelling of cool water from the Monterey submarine canyon. Rainfall is 40 to 50 centimeters per year, but summer fog drip is a primary source of moisture for plants that would otherwise not be able to persist with such low precipitation. Some taxa, such as the coastal closed-cone pines including Monterey PineMonterey Pine
The Monterey Pine, Pinus radiata, family Pinaceae, also known as the Insignis Pine or Radiata Pine is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California....
and Monterey Cypress are relict
Relict
A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.* In biology a relict is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas....
stands, i.e. species that once extended more widely in the mesic
Mesic
Mesic may refer to:* Mesic, North Carolina, a town in the United States* Mesic habitat, a type of habitat...
climate of the late Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
epoch, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and wetter conditions along the coast ranges during the hotter, drier early and middle Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
epoch between 6000 and 2000 BC.
A variety of natural habitats are found on the Monterey Peninsula: littoral
Littoral
The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...
zone and sand dunes; closed cone pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
forest; and Monterey Cypress
Cupressus macrocarpa
Cupressus macrocarpa, commonly known as Monterey Cypress or Macrocarpa, is a species of cypress that is endemic to the Central Coast of California. In the wild, the species is confined to two small populations, near Monterey and Carmel, California. These two small populations represent what was...
. During the early 1900s, Willis Linn Jepson
Willis Linn Jepson
Willis Linn Jepson is known as California's most distinguished early botanist. He became interested in botany as a boy and explored adjacent regions. He had come in contact with various botanists before he entered college...
characterized the forests on the Monterey Peninsula as the "most important silva ever", and encouraged Samuel F. B. Morse of the Del Monte Properties Company to explore the possibilities of preserving the unique forest communities. The dune area is also important, as it hosts endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
such as the vascular
Vascular tissue
Vascular tissue is a complex conducting tissue, formed of more than one cell type, found in vascular plants. The primary components of vascular tissue are the xylem and phloem. These two tissues transport fluid and nutrients internally. There are also two meristems associated with vascular tissue:...
plants Seaside birds beak and Eastwoods Ericameria
Ericameria
Ericameria is a genus of shrubs in the Asteraceae or daisy family known by the common names rabbitbrush, rabbitbush, and goldenbush. These are semi-deciduous shrubs familiarly known as to sagebrush. They are distributed in the arid western United States and northern Mexico. Bright yellow flowers...
. The closed cone pine forest habitat is dominated by Monterey pine, Knobcone Pine
Knobcone Pine
The Knobcone Pine, Pinus attenuata, is a tree that grows in mild climates on poor soils. It ranges from the mountains of southern Oregon to Baja California with the greatest concentration in northern California and the Oregon-California border....
and Bishop Pine
Bishop Pine
The Bishop Pine, Pinus muricata, is a pine with a very restricted range: mostly in the U.S. state of California, including several offshore Channel Islands, and a few locations in Baja California, Mexico...
, and contains the rare Monterey manzanita
Arctostaphylos montereyensis
Arctostaphylos montereyensis is a species of manzanita known by the common names Monterey manzanita and Toro manzanita. It is endemic to Monterey County, California, where it is known from only a few occurrences around Fort Ord and Toro County Park near Salinas. It is a plant of maritime chaparral...
and endangered Hickman's potentilla and Yadon's piperia
Piperia yadonii
Piperia yadonii, also known as Yadon's Piperia or Yadon's rein orchid, is an endangered orchid endemic to a narrow range of coastal habitat in northern Monterey County, California...
; rare plants inhabiting chaparral habitat in Monterey are: Hickman's onion and Sandmat manzanita
Arctostaphylos pumila
Arctostaphylos pumila, with the common name Sandmat manzanita, is a species of manzanita.-Description:Arctostaphylos pumila is a petite, low-lying manzanita which forms flat bushes and patchy, creeping mats in sandy soil. The bark is reddish and tends not to shred. The leaves are small and mainly...
. Other rare plants on the peninsula are: Hutchinson's larkspur
Delphinium hutchinsoniae
Delphinium hutchinsoniae is a rare species of larkspur known by the common names Monterey larkspur and Hutchinson's larkspur. It is endemic to California, where it is known only from Monterey County. This wildflower reaches a meter in height but is usually shorter...
, Tidestrom lupine; Gardner's yampah
Perideridia gairdneri
Perideridia gairdneri is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common names common yampah and Gardner's yampah. It is native to western North America from southwestern Canada to California to New Mexico, where it grows in many types of habitat...
and Monterey Knotweed
Polygonum
Polygonum is a genus in the Polygonaceae family. Common names include knotweed, knotgrass, bistort, tear-thumb, mile-a-minute, and several others. In the Middle English glossary of herbs "Alphita" , it was known as ars-smerte. There have been various opinions about how broadly the genus should be...
Marine Protected Areas
Soquel Canyon State Marine Conservation Area, Portuguese Ledge State Marine Conservation Area, Pacific Grove Marine Gardens State Marine Conservation Area, Lovers Point State Marine ReserveLovers Point State Marine Reserve
Lovers Point State Marine Reserve is one of four small marine protected areas located near the cities of Monterey and Pacific Grove, at the southern end of Monterey Bay on California’s central coast. The four MPAs together encompass . The SMR protects all marine life within its boundaries...
, Edward F. Ricketts State Marine Conservation Area
Edward F. Ricketts State Marine Conservation Area
Edward F. Ricketts State Marine Conservation Area and Pacific Grove Marine Gardens State Marine Conservation Area are two of four small marine protected areas located near the cities of Monterey and Pacific Grove, at the southern end of Monterey Bay on California’s central coast. The four areas...
and Asilomar State Marine Reserve
Asilomar State Marine Reserve
Asilomar State Marine Reserve is one of four small marine protected areas located near the cities of Monterey and Pacific Grove, at the southern end of Monterey Bay on California’s central coast. The four MPAs together encompass . The SMR protects all marine life within its boundaries...
are marine protected areas in Monterey Bay. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.
Demographics
At the 2000 Census, the Peninsula (Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel and Pebble Beach) had 53,808 residents, 84.8% of whom were WhiteWhite American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
, 8.5% Hispanic or Latino, 6.0% Asian or Pacific Islander and 1.8% were African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
. The Peninsula was considerably more affluent than the national average, with the percentage of household with six figure incomes being 60% higher and the percentage of household with incomes of less than $25,000 being 54% lower than the national average. In terms of income distribution 19.8% of households had incomes of less than $25,000, while 27.2% had incomes between $25,000 and $50,000, 21.1% incomes between $50,000 and $75,000, 11.9% incomes between $75,000 and $100,000 and 19.8% had incomes exceeding $100,000 compred to compared to 30.5%, 25.8%, 18.4%, 10.3% and 12.3% at the national level, respectively.
See also
- Pebble Beach, CaliforniaPebble Beach, CaliforniaPebble Beach is an unincorporated community in Monterey County, California. It lies at an elevation of 3 feet . Pebble Beach is a small coastal resort destination, home to the famous golf course, Pebble Beach Golf Links....
- Central Coast of CaliforniaCentral Coast of CaliforniaThe Central Coast is an area of California, United States, roughly spanning the area between the Monterey Bay and Point Conception. It extends through Santa Cruz County, San Benito County, Monterey County, San Luis Obispo County, and Santa Barbara County...
- Monterey County, CaliforniaMonterey County, CaliforniaMonterey County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California, its northwestern section forming the southern half of Monterey Bay. The northern half of the bay is in Santa Cruz County. As of 2010, the population was 415,057. The county seat and largest city is Salinas...
External links
- Monterey County Official Web-Site
- City of Monterey Official Web-Site
- City of Pacific Grove Official Web-Site
- City of Carmel Official Web-Site
- Pebble Beach Official Web-Site
- Monterey Peninsula official visitor information from the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Monterey Peninsula Factoids blog