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 (8
m) above sea level. As of 2005, the city population was 30,641. The
city is noted for its rich history of resident artists beginning in
the late 1800s, and its historically famed
fishery.
Monterey
is home to the Monterey Bay Aquarium
, the Monterey American Viticultural Area,
Cannery
Row
, Fisherman's Wharf
and the annual Monterey Jazz
Festival.
History
In prehistoric times the
Rumsen Ohlone tribe, one of seven
linguistically distinct Ohlone groups in
California, inhabited the area now known as Monterey. They lived a
subsistence life of
hunting,
fishing and gathering in what has been deduced as a
biologically rich
Monterey Peninsula. The most prominent
archaeological resources extant here are
shell
middens, the garbage dumps of these
early inhabitants. We can infer from midden contents that
mussels and
abalone were
consumed by the Rumsen Ohlone as their chief marine staples. The
principal archaeological sites that have been mapped are located
between the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Naval Postgraduate
School, within about 2000 feet (610 m) of the coastline.
First
established in 1770 by Father
Junípero Serra and Gaspar de
Portolà (governor of Baja and Alta California (1767–1770),
explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey), Monterey served as
the capital of California from 1777 to 1849, under the flags of
Spain
and Mexico
.
Variants of the city's name are recorded as
Monte
Rey and
Montery. Portola erected the
Presidio of Monterey to defend
the port against an expected Russian invasion. On June 3, 1770,
Serra founded the
Cathedral of San Carlos
Borromeo, also known as the
Royal Presidio
Chapel.
When the mission was moved to Carmel
the following year, the existing wood and adobe building became the San
Jose Chapel for the Presidio of
Monterey. Monterey became the capital of the Province of
Both Californias in 1777 and the chapel was renamed the
Royal Presidio Chapel. The original church was
destroyed by fire in 1789 and replaced by the present
sandstone structure. It was completed in 1794 by
Indian labor in the form of a
Latin
Cross. In 1840, the chapel was rededicated to the patronage of
Saint Charles Borromeo.
The
cathedral is the oldest continuously operating parish and the oldest stone
building in California
. It is the oldest (and smallest) serving
cathedral along with St. Louis Cathedral
in New Orleans, Louisiana
. It is the only existing presidio chapel in
California and the only existing building in the original
Monterey Presidio.
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.
.jpg/180px-Custom_House,_Custom_House_Plaza,_Monterey_(Monterey_County,_California).jpg)
Construction on the Custom House began
in 1814 under Spanish rule.
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.
Larkin House, one of
Monterey State
Historic Park
’s National
Historic Landmarks, built in the Mexican
period by
Thomas Oliver Larkin, is an
early example of Monterey Colonial architecture. The old Custom House,
the historic district and the Royal Presidio
Chapel
are also National Historic Landmarks. The
Cooper-Molera Adobe is a
National Trust
Historic Site.
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.
Monterey had long been famous for the abundant fishery in Monterey
Bay. That changed in the 1950s, when the local fishery business
collapsed due to overfishing.
A few of the old fishermen's cabins from the
early twentieth century have been preserved as they originally
stood along Cannery
Row
.
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 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".
Environmental features and geography
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
11.7 square miles (30.4 km²), of which 8.4 square
miles (21.9 km²) is land and 3.3 square miles
(8.5 km²) (28.05%) is water. Sand deposits in the northern
coastal area comprise the sole known mineral resources.
Local
soil is Quaternary Alluvium, and the city is in a moderate to high
seismic risk zone, the principal threat
being the active San Andreas Fault
approximately 26 miles (42 km) to the
east. The Monterey Bay fault, which tracks three miles
(4.8 km) to the north, is also active, as is the
Palo Colorado fault seven miles (11.3 km)
to the south. Also nearby, minor but potentially active, are the
Berwick Canyon, Seaside, Tularcitos and Chupines faults.
Monterey Bay's maximum credible
tsunami for
a 100 year interval has been calculated as a wave nine feet
(2.7 m) high. The considerable undeveloped area in the
northwest part of the city has a high potential for landslides and
erosion.
The city is situated on the
Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary, a Federally protected ocean area extending
276 miles (444 km) along the coast. (Sometimes this sanctuary
is confused with the local bay which is also termed Monterey Bay.)
The California
sea otter, a
threatened subspecies, inhabits the local
Monterey Bay
marine environment, and
a field station of
The Marine
Mammal Center is located in Monterey to support sea rescue
operations in this section of the California coast. Monterey is
home to some endangered
bird species: the
California clapper rail, found in
salt marshes; plus the California
brown
pelican and the Yuma
clapper rail,
both of whose habitats are dunes and rocky
headland. The rare San Joaquin
kit fox is also found in Monterey's
oak-
forest and
chaparral habitat. The chaparral, found mainly on
the city's drier eastern slopes, hosts such plants as
manzanita,
chemise and
ceanothus. Additional species of interest
(that is, potential candidates for endangered species status) are
the Salinas
kangaroo rat and the
silver-sided legless
lizard.

Monterey Wharf and Harbor area
There is a variety of natural habitat in Monterey:
littoral zone and
sand
dunes;
closed-cone pine
forest; and
Monterey Cypress.
There are
no dairy farms in the city of Monterey; the semi-hard cheese known as Monterey Jack originated in nearby
Carmel
Valley, California
, and is named after businessman and land speculator
David Jack.
The closed-cone pine habitat is dominated by
Monterey pine,
Knobcone pine and
Bishop pine, and contains the rare Monterey
manzanita. (In the early 1900s the
botanist
Willis Linn Jepson
characterized Monterey Peninsula's forests as the "most important
silva ever", and encouraged Samuel F.B. Morse (a century younger
than the inventor
Samuel F.
B. Morse) of the
Del
Monte Properties Company to explore the possibilities of
preserving the unique forest communities.) The dune area is no less
important, as it hosts
endangered
species such as the
vascular
plants
Seaside birds beak,
Hickman's potentilla and
Eastwood's
Ericameria. Rare plants also
inhabit the chaparral: Hickman's
onion,
Yadon's piperia (
Piperia
yadonii) and Sandmat manzanita. Other rare plants in
Monterey include Hutchinson's
delphinium,
Tidestrom
lupine,
Gardner's yampah and
Monterey Knotweed, the latter perhaps
already
extinct.
Monterey's
environmental noise has
been mapped to define the principal sources of noise and to
ascertain the areas of population exposed to significant levels.
Principal
sources are the Monterey Peninsula Airport
, State Route
1 and major arterial streets such as Munras Avenue, Fremont
Boulevard, Del Monte Boulevard, and Camino Aguajito. While
most of Monterey is a quiet residential city, a moderate number of
people in the northern part of the city are exposed to
aircraft noise at levels in excess of 60 db
on the Community Noise Equivalent Level (CNEL)scale. The most
intense source is
State Route
1: all residents exposed to levels greater than 65 CNEL—about
1600 people—live near State Route 1 or one of the principal
arterial streets.
Climate
The
climate of Monterey is regulated by its proximity to the Pacific Ocean
, culminating in a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate
classification Csb). As a result, Monterey's
average high temperature ranges from around 16° Celsius (60°
Fahrenheit) in winter to 22° Celsius (72° Fahrenheit) during the
summer months. Average annual precipitation is around
19.5 inches (495 mm), with most rainfall occurring during
California's wet season between November and April, while little or
no precipitation falls during the summer months. There are an
average of 70 days with measurable precipitation annually.
During
winter, snow occasionally falls in the higher elevations of the
Santa Lucia
Mountains
and Gabilan Mountains
that overlook Monterey, but snow in Monterey itself
is extremely rare. A few unusual events in January 1962,
February 1976, and December 1997 brought a light coating of snow to
Monterey. In March 2006, a total of 3.2 inches fell in
Monterey, including 2.2 inches on March 10, 2006.
The snowfall on
January 21, 1962, of 1.5 inches, is remembered for delaying
the Bing Crosby golf tournament in
nearby Pebble
Beach
.
The record highest temperature in Monterey was 104°F on October 5,
1987. The record lowest temperature was 20°F on December 22, 1990.
Annually, there are an average of 2.9 days with highs of 90°F
(32°C) or higher, and an average of 2.0 days with lows of 32°F
(0°C) or lower.
The wettest year on record was 1998 with 41.01 inches of
precipitation. The driest year was 1953 with 8.95 inches. The
most precipitation in one month was 14.26 inches in February
1998. The record maximum 24-hour precipitation was 3.85 inches
on December 23, 1995.
Arts and culture
Monterey has a strong arts community. Museums and entertainment
venues abound in the city as do local and internationally known
artists.
Visual Arts
Monterey is also the home of the Monterey Museum of Art. Also, the
Thomas Kinkade National Archive was founded in 1994 and is located
within the Harry A. Greene Mansion at 361 Lighthouse Avenue.
Kinkade originals have been limited in availability since 1997,
however the museum does display many of the artist's earlier work
and on rare occasions and at the discretion of the artist, more
contemporary works. All works in the Archive are original Kinkade
works of art. The mansion is Moorish-Victorian style and has been
restored to its original 1886 condition. Monterey is also the site
of numerous waterfront arts and crafts festivals held in the Custom
House Plaza at the top of
Fisherman's
Wharf.
Literary Arts

Steinbeck in 1962
Notable artists who made the area their home include
John Steinbeck, who grew up in Salinas, and
lived in nearby
Pacific Grove for many
years as well as the city of Monterey for a very short time.
Steinbeck immortalized Monterey with his novels
Cannery Row,
Tortilla Flat and
East of Eden, and his play
Of Mice and Men.
Among Steinbeck's
friends were some of the city's more colorful characters, including
Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist, and
Bruce Ariss, artist and theatre
enthusiast who designed and built the Wharf Theater
. After Rickett's death, the new owner and a
group of his friends would assemble in Rickett's lab for drinks and
Jazz music every Wednesday evening. While visiting with the group,
San Francisco DJ, Jimmy Lyons, suggested holding a Jazz celebration
in Monterey which eventually became the Monterey Jazz
Festival.
In 1879, Robert Lewis Stevenson spent a short time in Monterey at
the French Hotel, during the time he was writing "Amateur
Immigrant," "The Old Pacific," "Capital," and "Vendetta of the
West." The former hotel, now known as "Stevenson House", is located
at 530 Houston Street and features various items that once belonged
to the writer.
Music
The Monterey Jazz Festival began in 1958, presenting such artists
as
Louie Armstrong,
Dizzy Gillespie, and
Billie Holiday, and now claims to be "the
longest running
jazz festival in the world"
(since the
Newport Jazz
Festival moved locations).
In June
1967 the city was the venue of the Monterey Pop
Festival
. Formerly known as the
Monterey
International Pop Music Festival the three-day concert event
was held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County
Fairgrounds. It was the first widely-promoted and heavily-attended
rock festival, attracting an estimated
200,000 total attendees with 55,000 to 90,000 people present at the
event's peak at midnight on Sunday. It was notable as hosting the
first major American appearances by
Jimi
Hendrix and
The Who, as well as the
first major public performances of
Janis
Joplin and
Otis Redding.
The Monterey Pop Festival embodied the themes of San Francisco as a
focal point for the
counterculture
and is generally regarded as one of the beginnings of the "
Summer of Love" in 1967.
It also became the
template for future music festivals, notably the Woodstock
Festival
two years later.
In 1986, the Monterey Blues Festival was created and has run
continuously for over two decades.
Theatre Arts

California First Theatre
The building in which the first paid public dramatic entertainment
in California was presented is located in Monterey and is called,
appropriately, "California's First Theater". In 1847, a sailor
named Jack Swan began construction on an adobe building at the
corner of Pacific St. and Scott Ave, near the Pacific House and
Fisherman's Wharf. Between 1847
and 1848 several detachments of soldiers were stationed in Monterey
and some of the sailors approached Swan with a proposition to lease
a section of his building for use as a theatre and money making
venture - a proposal that Swan accepted. The enterprise collected
$500 on its first performance, a considerable sum at that time. The
primary mediums presented were
Melodramas
and Olios (a form of musical revue and audience sing-along). In the
spring of 1848, the play
Putnam, or, the Lion Son of '76,
was presented. After the
Gold Rush of
1849, much of the population, including Swan, traveled to northern
California in search of riches. As a result, by the end that year,
the company disbanded. In 1896, Swan died and the building was
abandoned until 1906, when it was purchased by the California
Historic Landmarks League, who deeded it to the
State of California.In 1937, the
building was leased to Denny-Watrous Management, who revived the
tradition of melodrama at the now historic building. A resident
company was created and named the
Troupers of the Gold
Coast, who maintained the tradition for over 50 years, closing
for renovation in 1999.
The Bruce Ariss Wharf Theater is run today by Angelo Di Girolamo,
whose brother had the original idea for a theatre on the
wharf. "The Wharf Theatre" opened May 18, 1950 with a
production of
Happy Birthday, featuring a
set design by Ariss. The theatre also
produced one of Bruce Ariss' original plays and was successful
enough to draw the attention of
MGM who brought
the artist to Hollywood to work for several years. The theatre was
destroyed by fire December 31, 1959. It re-opened in 1960 in a new
location on Alvarado Street (formerly the "The Monterey Theater")
and in 1963 was renamed "The Old Monterey Opera House". It
continued until the mid 1960s when it fell to
urban renewal. In the early-1970's,
discussions began about rebuilding back on the wharf itself, and
theatre plans began to take shape.
Designed by Ariss,
the new Wharf Theater opened its doors on December 3, 1976, with a
community theatre production of Guys
and Dolls, directed by Monterey
Peninsula College
Drama Department chairman, Morgan Stock.
Located at the northwest end of old
Fisherman's Wharf,
the venue continues to provide ongoing amateur entertainment.
Media
- See also: Media in
Monterey County
Local
radio stations include KWAV-FM - 96.9, KBOQ-FM - 103.9, KIDD-AM -
630
, KNRY-AM -
1240
, and 1610-AM the city information station.
Television service for the community comes from the
Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz designated market area (DMA). Local
newspapers include the
Monterey County Herald.
Education
There are
several institutions of higher education in the area, including
California State University, Monterey
Bay
at the site of the former Fort
Ord; the Defense Language
Institute, located on the Presidio of Monterey,
California; the Naval Postgraduate School
, on the site of a former resort hotel; the Monterey College of Law; the
Monterey Institute of International
Studies
(an affiliate of Middlebury College
); and Monterey Peninsula College
, part of the California Community
Colleges system. California State University Monterey
Bay has developed several well respected programs in marine and
watershed science, consistently placing graduates in graduate
programs or science careers. The federal institutions (the Defense
Language Institute, DLI, and the Naval Postgraduate School, NPS)
are important employers in, and strongly associated with, the
city.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 29,674
people, 12,600 households, and 6,476 families residing in the city.
The
population density was
3,516.9 people per square mile (1,357.5/km²). There were 13,382
housing units at an average density of 1,586.0/sq mi
(612.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 80.83%
White, 2.52%
African American, 0.57%
Native American, 7.43%
Asian, 0.29%
Pacific Islander, 3.91% from
other races, and 4.45%
from two or more races. 10.86% of the population were
Hispanic.
There were 12,600 households out of which 21.8% had children under
the age of 18 living with them, 39.5% were
married couples living together, 8.4% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 48.6% were non-families.
37.0% of all households consist of individuals and 11.0% have a
lone dweller who is over 64. The average household size was 2.13
and the average family size was 2.82.
The age distribution is as follows: 16.6% under the age of 18,
13.1% from 18 to 24, 33.8% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and
14.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36
years. For every 100 females there were 96.8 males. For every 100
females age 18 and over, there were 96.1 males.
The median
income for a household in the city
was $49,109, and the median income for a family was $58,757. Males
had a median income of $40,410 versus $31,258 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$27,133. About 4.4% of families and 7.8% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 6.5%
of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.
The city
is served by Monterey Peninsula Airport
, and local bus Service is provided by Monterey-Salinas
Transit.
Attractions
Monterey is steeped in history and famed for the abundance and
diversity of its marine life, which includes
sea lions,
sea otters,
harbor seals,
bat
rays,
kelp (seaweed) forests,
pelicans and
dolphins.
Located
at the southern end of Cannery Row
, the Monterey Bay Aquarium
, one of the largest in North America, hosts several
important marine science
laboratories. Monterey's geographic location gives
scientists access to the deep sea within hours, and only a few
miles offshore is Monterey
Canyon
, the largest and deepest (3.2 km) underwater canyon off the Pacific coast of
North America.
Another popular museum is
MY Museum (Monterey County Youth Museum). This
museum is especially popular with small children, and is located
within walking distance of the present day
Fisherman's Wharf,
which is now a popular tourist destination, and directly adjacent
to The Museum of Maritime History.
Sealife makes Monterey a popular destination
for
scuba divers of all abilities
ranging from novice to expert. Scuba classes are held at San Carlos
State Beach, which has been a favorite with divers since the
1960s.

Cannery Row at night
Once
called Ocean View Boulevard, Cannery Row
was renamed in 1953 in honor of writer John
Steinbeck, who had written a well known novel of the same
name. It has now become a tourist attraction with numerous
establishments located in former cannery buildings, as well as a
few historical attractions and the Monterey Bay Aquarium
. A few privately owned and operated fishing
companies still exist on Cannery Row, housed on
piers located a short distance from the historic
district frequented by tourists.
Monterey also has much to offer anyone who wants to dip into
California's history including several museums, and more than
thirty carefully preserved historic buildings. What may be the only
whalebone sidewalk still in existence in the United States lies in
front of the Old Whaling Station.
Lake El Estero is a popular Monterey
park. Recreation opportunities include paddle boats, the Dennis the
Menace Park (especially popular with small children), and a skate
park designed by local skaters. Birders are especially fond of this
park due to its easy accessibility and the diversity of bird life
it attracts.
Other attractions within easy reach of Monterey include:
Notable residents
- Mike Aldrete, coach with the
St. Louis Cardinals and a former
Major League Baseball player
(1986-1996)
- John Whitby Allen, famous
model railroader
- Tory Belleci, MythBusters
- Josh Billings, pen name for Henry
Wheeler Shaw, second most famous humorist (after Mark Twain) of the
mid-to-late 19th-cent. Died at Monterey.
- Pete Incaviglia, Manager of the Grand Prairie AirHogs (Minor League Baseball) and a former
Major League Baseball player
(1986-1998)
- James Lofton,
NFL player for the Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Raiders, Buffalo Bills, Los
Angeles Rams, and Philadelphia
Eagles; member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

- Katerina Moutsatsou, Greek
actress
- Leon Panetta, Director of the
Central Intelligence
Agency (2009-present), former Congressman (1977-1993) and White House Chief of Staff
(1994-1997)
- Allison
Scagliotti-Smith, an American actress
- John Steinbeck, American author,
bought a house in Monterey in 1944, was made to feel unwelcome,
left for New York in 1945
- Robert Louis Stevenson,
author of The Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde stayed in Monterey in 1879. Monterey is
cited in his children's poem from A Child's Garden of
Verses, "To My Name Child." The Stevenson house, with its
poetic garden, is located in Monterey.
- Jeremy Sumpter, an American
actor
- Frank Zappa, musician
Town twinnings
See also
References
- Augusta Fink, Monterey: The Presence of the Past,
Chronicle Books, San Francisco, California (1972) ISBN
0877010723
- City of Monterey Parks and Recreation Master Plan,
City of Monterey Parks and Recreation Department (1986)
- Environmental Hazards Element, city of Monterey, A
part of the General Plan, February, 1977
- Flora and Fauna
Resources: City of Monterey General Plan Technical Study,
prepared for City of Monterey by Bainbridge Behrens Moore Inc.,
Nov. 2, 1977
- General Plan, City of Monterey, (1980)
- Helen Spangenberg, Yesterday's Artists of the Monterey Peninsula, Monterey museum of
Art (1976)
- Prehistoric Sources Technical
Study, prepared for the city of Monterey by Bainbridge Behrens
Moore Inc., May 23, 1977
External links