Via California - March/April 2020 - 38

DAY 1

DOWNTOWN AND ALVARADO STREET

The ideal place to start delving into local history is the
Cooper-Molera Adobe, at Munras Avenue and Pearl Street.
The newly renovated site, managed by the National Trust
for Historic Preservation, provides an evocative glimpse
of Old California. "From Mexican rule to statehood, so
much of California history is represented here," says Meg
Clovis, Cooper-Molera's codirector of partnerships and
interpretation.
The complex-reopened in 2018 after a two-year,
$6.5 million restoration-centers on the two-story adobe
built by trading ship captain John Cooper, who arrived
in 1823 and married Encarnación Vallejo, a member of a
38

V I A | M A R C H +A P R I L 2 0 2 0

Monterey is so quintessentially
Californian that it has served as
a backdrop for innumerable
Hollywood films and TV shows.
prominent Mexican family. The couple's former home
now functions as a first-rate museum featuring exhibits on
19th-century life in Monterey as well as period furnishings,
including a venerable Steinway piano. Next door, inside a
reincarnated general store, Alta Bakery and Café serves
forceful coffees, flaky pastries, and melty pizzas.
Cooper-Molera is among some two dozen such landmarks downtown. "It's been said that Monterey has the
largest concentration of historic adobes outside of Santa Fe,
[N.M.]," notes Nicollette Eason Trottier of the Monterey
State Historic Park Association. (Free cell phone tours let
you access details about prominent buildings while you
stroll; call [831] 718-9123 or [831] 998-9458 and follow the
prompts.) Trottier personally is fond of the former French
Hotel, located a block east, at Pearl and Houston Streets.
The demure digs housed novelist Robert Louis Stevenson
in 1879 while he convinced Fanny Osbourne to be his wife.
These days, the site-known as the Stevenson House, open
Saturdays from April through October-displays his manuscripts, first editions, and other memorabilia. After your
visit, you could track down a copy of Across the Plains to read
his essay "The Old Pacific Capital."

FAR LEFT: COURTESY ALVARADO STREET BREWERY

science. Downtown, timeless gardens intermingle with
trendy brewpubs. On the waterfront, restaurants and retailers cleverly reclaim former fish-processing facilities. All in
all, Monterey is so quintessentially Californian that it has
served as a backdrop for innumerable Hollywood films
and TV shows, including HBO's hit series Big Little Lies.
The city's whole scene, old-timey and modern, is best
explored on foot. Two easy walks will help you get the most
out of a weekend visit: The first route traverses downtown,
highlighting Monterey's rich collection of surviving adobes
and its revived main thoroughfare, Alvarado Street; the
second runs along the waterfront, leading you to must-see
attractions such as Cannery Row, the aquarium, and the
wharf. Treat yourself to scenic rest stops and tasty quick
bites along the way.

Via California - March/April 2020

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