1919 / 1927 Moore Plan of Pacific Grove, California

This is W. T. Moore's c. 1919 map of Pacific Grove, California, produced for the Del Monte Properties Company, a major player in the development of Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, and surrounding communities. The map marks a transitional moment for Pacific Grove and is contemporaneous with the 1919 property auction that led to the city's rapid expansion.

A Closer Look

This map is oriented towards the southwest, as was common with early maps of Pacific Grove. City limits are traced (later extended to the west to the ocean) with streets, blocks, lots, parks, and other features labeled, and with acreage noted on undeveloped lots. In some places, planned future development is printed over existing features, as with the streets grafted on to the El Carmelo Cemetery towards bottom-right.

Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station appears at bottom-left; in later years, the institution and its scientists would be instrumental in establishing the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium. The station and rail yards of the Southern Pacific Railroad appear at center towards bottom; a dashed line running through nearby streets represents a streetcar line. The U.S. Lighthouse Reservation at bottom-right refers to the Point Pinos Lighthouse, built 1854, now the oldest continually operating lighthouse on the U.S. Pacific Coast. The Asilomar Y.W.C.A. at top-right was a major landmark in the area at the time, with several majestic buildings designed by architect Julia Morgan, who also designed Hearst Castle (Morgan was the first female architect licensed in California). Phoebe Hearst, the philanthropist wife of California Senator George Hearst and mother of media mogul William Randolph Hearst, was a major supporter of the Asilomar Y.W.C.A.

This map was prepared by W. T. Moore, the chief engineer of Del Monte Properties, and coincided with a 1919 land auction that supercharged development in the town (for reference, see a 1919 promotional map for the auction, also offered by us as PacificGroveProperties-delmonte-1919). The verso contains promotional information and images of the city, as well as a table of distances of nearby cities and towns, cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento. In the aftermath of the 1919 auction, the city grew very rapidly, and its population nearly doubled between 1920 and 1930.

Del Monte Properties

By the late 1870s, several groups of non-native settlers had established themselves on Monterey Bay, including rancheros, Chinese fishermen, and Christian missionaries. The area changed drastically when it was designated as a planned site for future development by a group of investors including Charles Crocker (one of the California 'Big Four' railroad barons) and the Southern Pacific Railroad. Following a model enacted throughout California at roughly the same time, the Southern Pacific completed a railroad line to the area, reaching Monterey in January 1880, and immediately organized promotional trips for potential investors from San Francisco. Crocker financed the building of an opulent resort hotel, the Del Monte, one of the largest west of the Mississippi River, and the Pacific Improvement Company (PIC) was founded, financed by Crocker, the other rail barons (Leeland Stanford, Collis Huntington, and Mark Hopkins), and their associates, to handle all aspects of the area's development. Soon the PIC was one of the largest corporations in the American West, with dozens of subsidiaries in many industries, including real estate, utilities, shipping, and more, all oriented towards the Monterey Peninsula and Monterey Bay.

Despite skepticism over the entire scheme and the original Del Monte Hotel burning down in 1887, the hotel was a rousing success, buoyed by the ease of access from San Francisco. Soon, the area began to attract more visitors (necessitating the construction of more resort hotels), and year-round residents, particularly writers, artists, and bohemians, became a special magnet for painters of the En plein air school. In 1919, a group of San Francisco investors led by Herbert Fleishhacker joined with Samuel Morse (1885 - 1969), who had managed the PIC for several years, to purchase the Del Monte Hotel and thousands of acres of adjoining land (including Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, the Del Monte Forest, and the 17-Mile Drive therein) from the PIC, forming the Del Monte Properties Company in the process. Morse revived the by-then aging hotel and refocused attention on outdoor activities, especially golf, working first with the PIC and then Del Monte Properties to develop the resort and oceanside links at Pebble Beach into one of the most iconic golf courses in the world. In 1977, Del Monte Properties was reincorporated as the Pebble Beach Corporation (later changed to the Pebble Beach Company).

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by surveyor W. T. Moore and drawn by D. D. Howard and G. T. Whitwell. The only cataloged example of this map in institutional collections is held by the Monterey Public Library, while an example also appears to be held by the Pacific Grove Heritage Society. The Monterey Public Library example looks to be a variant printing, provided 'compliments of Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce' and noted as a cadastral map with an index of landowners. Moreover, the catalog listing for that example notes it as a photocopy, though it more likely is a contemporary photozincographic (or perhaps photolithographic) reproduction of an original survey map, now lost, which is also consistent with the appearance of the present map. The promotional image and text of the Forest Hill Hotel on the verso, referring to the hotel's opening in 1926, indicate that this brochure was published c. the late 1920s, using Moore's earlier map on the recto.