Monterey County, California Points of Interest

This mission, founded October 9,1791 by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, ministered to the Indians of the Salinas Valley. Governor Jos... [click for more]

Mission San Antonio de Padua, established on July 14, 1771, was the third in a series of missions founded in Alta California by Father Junípero... [click for more]

Mission San Carlos Borroméo De Carmelo

was established by Father Serra on June 3, 1770 at the Presidio of Monterey. Finding this locat... [click for more]

Royal Presidio Chapel of San Carlos Borroméo

Established as a mission by Father Serra, June 3, 1770, this became the royal Presidio Ch... [click for more]

Commodore John Drake Sloat raised the American flag over this building on July 7, 1846 to signal the passing of California from Mexican to American ru... [click for more]

In 1841 the municipality of Monterey granted a lot to Joaquín Gutiérrez where he and his wife, Josefa, built an adobe home. The house ha... [click for more]

In the late 1830s, Thomas Oliver Larkin built the House of Four Winds, named for the weather vane in his garden. Tradition says the building was used ... [click for more]

A native of Monterey, Alvarado served as Governor of Mexican California from December 20, 1836 to December 20, 1842. During his administration the inc... [click for more]

The adobe-and-wood Larkin House was built in 1835 by Thomas Oliver Larkin, a Yankee merchant who came to California in April 1832. Since Larkin was th... [click for more]

Originally built as a hotel between 1835 and 1847 by James McKinley, the building was known as the Pacific House in 1850, when it housed a public tave... [click for more]

Los Coches Rancho (8,994.2 acres) was granted to María Josefa Soberanes de Richardson by the Mexican government in 1841. Her husband, William B... [click for more]

In this house in 1879 lived Robert Louis Stevenson, essayist, storyteller, and poet whose contribution to literature delighted the world. ... [click for more]

Don José Estrada, who built this adobe in 1830, sold the property to Don Feliciano Soberanes. The adobe was the home of the Soberanes family fr... [click for more]

In the 1820s, Don Ignacio Vallejo built the Casa Materna on Bolsa de San CayetaDon Ignacio and Dona María Antonio Lugo y Vallejo had 13 childre... [click for more]

This adobe house was occupied by a sister of Tiburcio Vásquez, the colorful Monterey bandit of the 1870s. ... [click for more]

In the 1850s this building was a general merchandise store operated by Joseph Boston & Co. In later years it was called Casa de Oro because of the... [click for more]

The first Chautauqua in the West was organized at Pacific Grove in June 1879 for the presentation of 'moral attractions' and 'the highest grade of con... [click for more]

In this building met the convention that drafted the Constitution under which California was admitted to statehood on September 9, 1850. Robert Semple... [click for more]

This building was built about 1844 as a sailor's lodging house by Jack Swan. In 1848 it was commandeered by a group of mustered-out soldiers of Colone... [click for more]

Operated by Hiram Cory, this was one of the first ferries to cross the Salinas River. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors regulated the toll whic... [click for more]

Built between 1844 and 1848 by José Eusebio Boronda, this is an outstanding example of a Mexican-era rancho adobe. Virtually unaltered since it... [click for more]

Having entered the harbor the previous evening with his three small vessels, Sebastian Vizcaino landed here on December 17, 1602. Mass was sung by thr... [click for more]

Light Stations Of California (thematic historical marker). Spanish explorers and later New England hide and tallow traders found the Big Sur coastline... [click for more]

This monument is dedicated to the 3,586 Monterey Bay area residents of Japanese ancestry, most of whom were American citizens, temporarily confined in... [click for more]

Combined American forces under Captains Charles D. Burrass (or Burroughs) and Bluford K. Thompson clashed with Comandante Manuel de Jesús Castr... [click for more]