Explore Monterey

Monterey State Historic Park is a group of restored adobe and early American buildings in Old Monterey, the former capital of Spanish and Mexican Alta California. It includes the Custom House of 1827, where the US flag was raised over California in 1846, the Pacific House Museum and California's First Theatre. Guided walks start at the Custom House.

The Monterey Museum of Art, founded in 1959, shows California art from the 19th century to the present in eight galleries at 559 Pacific Street, across from Colton Hall in Old Monterey. Its collection covers painting, photography and sculpture, with a focus on early California painting and the artists of the Carmel art colony.

Colton Hall on Pacific Street in Monterey was built of local stone in 1847–49 by Walter Colton, the town's first American alcalde, with a school below and a public hall above. In 1849 the upstairs hall hosted California's first constitutional convention. It is now a city museum showing documents and objects from the convention.

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo stands at the mouth of the Carmel River on the southern edge of Carmel-by-the-Sea, about 7 km south of Monterey. Founded in 1770 and moved here in 1771, it was the headquarters of the Alta California missions under Junípero Serra. Restored from 1931, it keeps its original bell tower and houses museums.