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city in Monterey County, California, United States
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Monterey ( MON-tə-RAY; Spanish: Monterrey) is a city on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California, United States. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of 8.645 sq mi (22.39 km2) and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census.
Monterey was founded by the Spanish in 1774, when Gaspar de Portolá and Junípero Serra established the Presidio of Monterey and the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo. Monterey was elevated to capital of the Province of the Californias in 1777, serving as the administrative and military headquarters of both Alta California and Baja California, as well as its only official port of entry. Following the Mexican War of Independence, Monterey continued as the capital of the Mexican Department of the Californias.
During the United States conquest of California, part of the Mexican-American War, Monterey was seized by the American military in the Battle of Monterey in 1846. Following its capture, Monterey continued to serve as the capital of the American interim government of California until 1849, during which it hosted California's 1st Constitutional Convention. In the late 19th century, Monterey and its surrounding area began to attract communities of artists, writers, and other creatives, leading to the creation of an art colony.
Today, Monterey is a popular tourist destination on the Central Coast, hosting notable attractions such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row, Fisherman's Wharf, California Roots Music and Arts Festival, and the annual Monterey Jazz Festival. The city is also an important hub for the military and higher education, home to the Defense Language Institute, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and California State University, Monterey Bay.
Long before the arrival of Spanish explorers, the Rumsen Ohlone tribe, one of seven linguistically distinct Ohlone groups in California, inhabited the area now known as Monterey. Ohlone villages in the area included Ichxenta (Point Lobos), Calendaruc, Wacharon (Moss Landing), and Rumsien (Carmel-by-the-Sea), among others. They subsisted by hunting, fishing and gathering food on and around the biologically rich Monterey Peninsula.
Researchers have found a number of shell middens in the area and, based on the archaeological evidence, concluded the Ohlone's primary marine food consisted of various types of mussels and abalone. A number of midden sites have been located along about 12 miles (19 km) of rocky coast on the Monterey Peninsula from the current site of Fishermans' Wharf in Monterey to Carmel.
The city is named after Monterey Bay. The bay's name was given by Sebastián Vizcaíno in 1602. He anchored in what is now Monterey harbor on December 16, and named it Puerto de Monterrey, in honor of the Conde de Monterrey, then the viceroy of New Spain. Monterrey is an alternate spelling of Monterrei, a municipality in the Galicia region of Spain from which the viceroy and his father (the Fourth Count of Monterrei) originated. Some variants of the city's name are recorded as Monte Rey and Monterey. Monterey Bay had been described earlier by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo as La Bahia de los Pinos (Bay of the Pines). Despite the explorations of Cabrillo and Vizcaino, and despite Spain's frequent trading voyages between Asia and Mexico, the Spanish did not make Monterey Bay into a settled permanent harbor before the 18th century. Monterey Harbor was too exposed to rough ocean currents and winds. Nonetheless, Monterey was known as a location with tall pines for repairing masts. In 1745, the King's appointee to the Manila (Philippines) audiencia, Pedro Calderon Henriquez, began lobbying to build a shipyard staffed by Filipino artisans in Monterey, with the goal of using the ships to defend the commercial route from piracy.
Despite Monterey's limited use as a maritime port, the encroachments of other Europeans near California in the 18th century prompted the Spanish monarchy to try to better secure the region. As a result, it commissioned the Portola exploration and Alta California mission system. In 1769, the first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolá expedition, traveled north from San Diego. They sought Vizcaíno's Port of Monterey, which he had described as "a fine harbor sheltered from all winds" 167 years earlier. The explorers failed to recognize the place when they came to it on October 1, 1769. The party continued north as far as San Francisco Bay before turning back. On the return journey, they camped near one of Monterey's lagoons on November 27, still not convinced they had found the place Vizcaíno had described. Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí noted in his diary, "We halted in sight of the Point of Pines (recognized, as was said, in the beginning of October) and camped near a small lagoon which has rather muddy water, but abounds in pasture and firewood."
Gaspar de Portolá returned by land to Monterey the next year, having concluded that he must have been at Vizcaíno's Port of Monterey after all. The land party was met at Monterey by Junípero Serra, who traveled by sea. Portolá erected the Presidio of Monterey to defend the port and, on June 3, 1770, Serra founded the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo inside the presidio enclosure. Portolá returned to Mexico, replaced in Monterey by Captain Pedro Fages, who had been third in command on the exploratory expeditions. Fages became the second governor of Alta California, serving from 1770 to 1774.
Serra's missionary aims soon came into conflict with Fages and the soldiers, so he relocated and built a new mission in Carmel the next year to gain greater independence from Fages. The existing wood and adobe church remained in service to the nearby soldiers and became the Royal Presidio Chapel.
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 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 also 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 surviving building from the original Monterey Presidio.
The city was originally the only port of entry for all 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 three phases, the Spanish began construction of the Custom House in 1814, the Mexican government completed the center section in 1827, and the United States government finished the lower end in 1846.
On November 24, 1818, Argentine corsair Hippolyte Bouchard landed approximately 7 km (4.3 mi) from the Presidio of Monterey, using a hidden tidal creek to conceal his approach. Operating under a letter of marque from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Bouchard carried out the expedition as part of Argentina’s broader efforts to disrupt Spanish colonial control during the South American wars of independence.
The Spanish garrison offered minimal resistance, and after roughly an hour of combat, Bouchard’s forces succeeded in capturing the fort. The Argentine flag was then raised over Monterey, marking a symbolic assertion of Argentine presence on the Pacific coast of North America. Although the Spanish flag had long flown there as part of colonial rule, this event marked the first time an independent foreign nation had occupied and hoisted its flag in California preceding both the Mexican and United States flags.
Bouchard’s forces occupied Monterey for six days. During the occupation, they seized livestock and supplies, and set fire to several strategic buildings, including the fort, the artillery headquarters, the governor’s residence, and various Spanish colonial homes. Despite the destruction of infrastructure, the civilian population was not harmed. After achieving their objectives, the Argentines withdrew and continued their privateering campaign along the Pacific coast.
Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, but the civil and religious institutions of Alta California remained much the same until the 1830s, when the secularization of the missions converted most of the mission pasture lands into private land grant ranchos. In 1834, the San Carlos Cemetery was officially opened and interred many of the early local families. Agustín V. Zamorano established the first print shop in California, when he brought a printing press to Monterey, in the summer of 1834.
During the Mexican period, the city was determined the site of District Court of the Territory of Alta California (Juzgado de Distrito del Territorio de la Alta California), since 1834, when Luis del Castillo Negrete, the appointed district judge (Juez de Distrito), took possession of the court; until 1836, when due to the rebellion led by Juan Bautista Alvarado, the judge left the city for the territory of Baja California, which de facto disqualified that instance and would close definitively until 1841, with a decree by Antonio López de Santa Anna. Subsequently, in 1842, the Superior Court (Superior Tribunal de Justicia del Departamento de las Californias) was installed, which had a short life, as it stopped functioning in 1845.
Monterey was the site of the Battle of Monterey on July 7, 1846, 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 historic "firsts" occurred in Monterey. These include First theater in California, brick house, publicly funded school, public building, public library, and printing press (which printed The Californian, California's 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, originally served as both a public school and a government meeting place. It hosted the 1849 Constitutional Convention, where American and Californio delegates drafted the first Constitution of California, in both English and Spanish.
Monterey hosted California's first constitutional convention in 1849, which composed the documents necessary to apply to the United States for statehood. Today Colton Hall houses a small museum, while adjacent buildings serve as the seat of local government, and the Monterey post office (opened in 1849).
Pioneer Francis Doud built Doud House in the 1860s, situated at the present-day 117 Van Buren Street. The house is one of the earliest and most well-preserved examples of an early wood frame residences in Monterey. Monterey was incorporated in 1890.
Thomas Albert Work built several of the buildings in Monterey, including the three-story Del Mar hotel in 1895, at the corner of Sixteenth, and in 1900, bought into the First National Bank in Monterey, acquiring it in 1906. He was president of the bank for more than 20 years.
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 20th 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.
Many noted authors have also lived in and around Monterey, including Robert Louis Stevenson, John Steinbeck, Ed Ricketts, Robinson Jeffers, Robert A. Heinlein, and Henry Miller.
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 "the Language Capital of the World".
On June 7, 2021, the macOS Monterey operating system was presented at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC2021) and named after the Monterey region.
Monterey contains 15 officially designated neighborhoods that combine over eight square miles of land. The boundaries of these neighborhoods were created by the Neighborhood and Community Improvement Program (NCIP) in 2021. Each neighborhood is managed by a neighborhood association, but these neighborhood associations are not legal government entities of the City of Monterey. The federal government of the United States possesses much territory in Monterey, as does the State of California.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Monterey, California”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.