Along one small section of Monterey's shoreline, the street names tell you almost everything about the neighborhood's original promise.

Surf Way. Tide Avenue. Beach Way. Spray Avenue. Seafoam Avenue. Dunecrest Avenue.

They evoke a simple idea: build a house beside Monterey Bay and live at the beach.

Beginning in the …

Originally published October 10, 2014; substantially updated August 2026.

Alta Mesa is easy to miss.

Drivers traveling between downtown Monterey, Highway 1, Del Monte Center and Monterey Peninsula College can pass within a few hundred yards of the neighborhood without realizing that a remarkably private collection of winding roads, large …

Originally published August 22, 2013; substantially updated September 2026.

The hills above downtown Monterey can be surprisingly difficult to name.

Ask one longtime resident where a particular house is located and you may hear Monterey Vista. Ask a real-estate agent and the same general area may be described as …

Originally published August 19, 2013; substantially updated September 2026.

From downtown Monterey, the wooded ridge above the city can look as though it has always been there untouched.

It hasn't.

Hidden among the Monterey pines and coast live oaks is one of the city's most interesting examples of postwar residential …

Originally published May 29, 2013; substantially updated September 2026.

Thousands of people walk past 800 Cannery Row every year without realizing that one of the most important buildings in Monterey's scientific and literary history is sitting almost in plain sight.

It is not one of Cannery Row's enormous former sardine …