Celebrate Monterey’s 250th Birthday: A Virtual Tour in Nine Postcards
Monterey, California, planned a big celebration on June 3, 2020, of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the city in 1770. Sadly, all birthday events, from historical reenactments to block parties and patriotic parades, were canceled or postponed due to the great Covid 19 pandemic. Instead, other-worldly masked figures haunt the streets of Old Monterey and the venerable adobes are silent and shuttered. We cannot visit them in person, so I invite you to join me on a virtual tour of some of my favorite spots.
Monterey is proud of its role as the capital of Spanish and, later, Mexican California. With more than forty properties from that era on the historic inventory list, ten of them within the Monterey State Historic Park district, the city claims to have preserved more such buildings than anywhere else in the state. Monterey is also the only place in North America to have lived under the flags of four colonial powers.
First, we will explore half a dozen downtown spots chosen for their visual appeal, historic importance, and the fascinating characters that continue to haunt them. After that, we will climb a hill where many of the stories of California’s transition, from an ancient community of native people through…
