Seaside: A Resort Town Plan, an Army Post, and a City That Welcomed Everyone

For a long time, Seaside was the town people on the Peninsula overlooked. That's changed. Today it's one of the most in-demand places to buy around here, with bay views in many neighborhoods, quick access to Monterey and the rest of the Peninsula, and prices that, while no longer cheap, are still well below Monterey and Pacific Grove. It also has a history that's different from any of its neighbors.

I grew up in Seaside, and I still live here. I've watched it change a lot, and I like it here.

A doctor's resort plan

In the late 1880s, Dr. John L. D. Roberts bought 160 acres from his uncle and laid out a resort subdivision next to the famous Hotel Del Monte. He called it East Monterey. A post office opened in 1891, and the Southern Pacific Railroad had a stop there. By 1899, the town had taken the name Seaside.

Roberts had big ambitions for the area. In the early 1900s, he encouraged the Army to use land nearby for training, and he invited it to set up camp on part of his property. That decision would end up defining Seaside for most of the next century.

Fort Ord next door

What started as an Army training ground north of Monterey grew into Fort Ord, officially named in 1940. During World War II and for decades after, it was one of the country's major Army training centers, and the 7th Infantry Division called it home. Huge numbers of soldiers trained there over the years, and many of their families lived in or near Seaside.

Seaside incorporated as its own city on October 13, 1954, separating from Monterey.

A city that welcomed everyone

Fort Ord also shaped who lived in Seaside. After President Truman ordered the integration of the armed forces in 1948, Fort Ord became one of the first major training centers to fully integrate. Black soldiers and their families came to the area, along with soldiers of every background.

But integration on base didn't mean integration everywhere. For decades, housing discrimination across Monterey County meant that families of color were often shown homes only in Seaside. Seaside became their home, and the city grew into one of the most diverse places in California. By the mid-1960s, about 6,000 of its 22,000 residents were African American, the largest Black community between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

That diversity showed up in local leadership early. In 1956, just two years after the city incorporated, Seaside elected its first African American city councilman, Monroe Jones, backed by a coalition of Black, white, Japanese American, and Filipino residents. Historian Carol Lynn McKibben, who wrote a book on Seaside's history, describes it as a place where integration happened more peacefully than in many larger cities with military bases.

Today, Seaside is still one of the most diverse cities on the Peninsula, with a large Latino community alongside families whose roots go back to the Fort Ord years.

When the base closed

In 1991, the federal government recommended closing Fort Ord, and the base closed in 1994. For Seaside, it was a huge blow. The base had been the town's economic engine for decades, and the city's population, which peaked around 1990, dropped as military families left.

The 1980s and early 1990s were hard years for Seaside. Like many cities at the time, it dealt with rising crime, and then it lost the base that had kept its economy going. Historian Carol Lynn McKibben notes that residents responded by organizing community watch groups across racial lines, instead of turning on each other.

Slowly, the former base found new life. California State University, Monterey Bay opened on part of it in 1994. The Army's Bayonet and Black Horse golf courses were bought by the city in 1997 and opened to the public. Fort Ord Dunes State Park opened in 2009, and in 2012, President Obama designated the Fort Ord National Monument, with Seaside as its gateway. New neighborhoods have gone up on former base land, and more growth is still planned.

Seaside today

Seaside isn't the town it used to be, in the best way. Homes that were once considered bargains now sell for close to a million dollars or more, and buyers who couldn't find what they wanted in Monterey or Pacific Grove increasingly look here first.

Like every city on the Peninsula, Seaside has its own micro-markets:

• Seaside Highlands is a planned community on former Fort Ord land, with homes built mostly in the early 2000s. It's one of the newer neighborhoods on the Peninsula, and homes there generally sell for over $1 million.
• The Enclave is a newer gated community near the Bayonet and Black Horse golf courses, built in phases over the past several years. It has large homes, and as I write this, prices start a little over $2 million and go well beyond that.
• The horseshoe is what I, and a lot of locals, call the upper parts of town that wrap around Mid-Broadway: around Ord Grove, Upper Broadway and Mescal, and Upper Kimball. It's not an official neighborhood, and there's no exact boundary, but it's where a lot of buyers want to be. The streets are wider, homes have more space between them, and some streets have the best views in the city. This is where you'll find a growing number of homes selling for around $1 million.
• Mid-Broadway, in the center of town, has narrower one-way streets, tighter parking, and generally smaller homes and yards, though not all of them are small. You can still find bay views on some streets here, and it's often where buyers find more room in their budget.

A rough outline of the horseshoe and Mid-Broadway. These aren't official boundaries, just how locals tend to talk about the city.

What it means if you're buying or selling in Seaside

A few local rules are worth knowing:

• A city report before you sell. Seaside requires a Real Property Disclosure Report before a sale, and the home has to meet the city's water conservation rules before closing. See the Seller's Guide chapter on disclosures and local requirements.
• Water. Seaside is inside the Peninsula's water district, so the water fixture rules apply when you sell, and adding a bathroom isn't always simple.
• Short-term rentals. Seaside caps non-hosted short-term rentals, and the cap has been full, with a waitlist.
• Military buyers. With the Presidio of Monterey and the Naval Postgraduate School nearby, many buyers here use VA loans and move on military orders.

For more on these rules, see the Buyer's Guide chapter on local rules.

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Sources: Wikipedia, Seaside, California, and Fort Ord; African American Intellectual History Society review of Racial Beachhead by Carol Lynn McKibben.