Monterey County History Overview

Walking around downtown Salinas can be an architectural adventure. There are dramatic bas relief busts on the original courthouse (now county offices) by artist Jo Mora, and large Queen Anne homes with asymmetrical facades, art deco flair and embellishments on…

The number of National Historic Landmarks in Monterey County just increased.

A lecture hall, Sunday school, dance studio, Boy Scout headquarters, gym and tent storage during the winter between summer Methodist camp sessions in the late 1800s. Pacific Grove’s Chautauqua Hall has served many purposes over 143 years since it was…

The Carmel Public Library opened in 1928, in the era when Carmel was establishing its bohemian reputation. It was a year after the Carmel Art Association was established, and two years before Sunset Center was built, as a school. The…

Pam Marino here, thinking about how history reverberates through time. We may want to say “the past is the past” and move on, but the truth is, the past influences the present and the future, whether we want to admit…

The burning of a Chinese fishing village on the shores of Pacific Grove in 1906 continues to reverberate through the town’s history to the present – two years ago, P.G. City Council issued an official apology for the fire and…

There is a photograph of Anne Rasmussen wearing her dress blues. It dates from World War II, when she served in the WAVES, or Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service, a branch of the Navy.

Over 20 years ago, developer Nader Agha decided to adorn the Holman Building in Pacific Grove with a large, half-moon shaped, Tiffany-style stained glass window depicting Butterfly Town’s beloved monarch butterflies.

Roosevelt Elementary School in the Salinas City Elementary School District celebrated its 100th anniversary on Thursday, Oct.3. It's the same school where the famous novelist John Steinbeck attended when he was a child.

Gary Griggs, UCSC Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences tells us about his new book, California Catastrophes: The Natural Disaster History of the Golden State, about the history of disasters in our state and what we can expect in the future.