The archive
Blog
Seaside: A Resort Town Plan, an Army Post, and a City That Welcomed Everyone
Seaside started as a doctor's resort subdivision next to the Hotel Del Monte. Fort Ord turned it into one of the most diverse cities in California, and the base's closure is still shaping it today.
6 min readSalinas: How a Stagecoach Stop Became the Salad Bowl of the World
Salinas grew from a roadside inn into the county seat and the center of one of the most productive farm valleys on earth. The people who worked that land shaped the city as much as the land itself.
5 min readMoss Landing: Whales, Sardines, and the Smokestacks on the Bay
Moss Landing has been a shipping landing, a whaling station, a sardine town, and home to what was once California's biggest power plant. Each boom left something behind.
5 min readMarina: The Newest City on the Bay
Marina started as a small subdivision on the sand dunes north of Fort Ord. It didn't become a city until 1975, and it's been growing ever since, much of it on land the Army left behind.
4 min readPacific Grove: From a Methodist Tent Camp to California's Last Dry Town
Pacific Grove started as a summer church camp on 30-by-60-foot tent lots. More than 150 years later, those lots, and the rules that came with them, still shape the town.
5 min readMonterey: California's First Capital and the Street Named for Sardines
Before San Francisco or Los Angeles mattered, Monterey was the capital of California. Then it became the sardine capital of the world. Both chapters still shape the city today.
4 min readCarmel-by-the-Sea: How an Artists' Colony Wrote Its Own Rules
No street addresses, no streetlights, and cottages that look like they came out of a storybook. Most of what makes Carmel feel different today traces back to choices the town made more than 100 years ago.
7 min read