Pacific Grove Walking Tours Offer Much for Intrepid Wayfarers

Pacific Grove is a walker’s paradise, so say many visitors and residents, but also urban planning professionals and enthusiasts alike. With over four miles of unobstructed coastal access within city limits, Pacific Grove may be the most accessible coastal city in California, with ample free coastal parking along the waterfront and minimal barriers between wanderers and the waterline. It is an enviable abode for those who like to sitesee by foot.

Apart from the miles of coastline, Pacific Grove also has numerous Victorian era homes and historical housing, boasting well over a thousand dwellings and other structures built in the Roaring Twenties and before. In fact, there’s an official designation for such buildings in the City Municipal Code. Eagle-eyed walkers may notice green and gold plaques adorning the thresholds of numerous homes throughout Pacific Grove. They are placed by the owner at the behest of the Pacific Grove Heritage Society, featuring the year of construction and name of the original owner. The Heritage Society of Pacific Grove are passionate advocates for historic home preservation in the city, which have identified and recognized over 1,800 homes of historical significance within Pacific Grove’s pint-sized city limits.

Only befitting for such a walkable and historic place, Pacific Grove boasts its own walking tour, which is among the most popular items given out to visitors at Pacific Grove’s two tourist centers. The Pacific Grove Walking Tour covers ample ground in the downtown area and historic center. This region, roughly a mile square, boasts some of the first homes ever built by people of European descent in Pacific Grove. Victorians are not the only homes to be found in this segment. Rather, a wide variety of historic styles can be found to architecture enthusiasts. These include Gothic and Gothic Revival, featuring steep roofs and trimmed porches, some with irregular composition. Larger homes were often designed to the Queen Anne style, with towers, gabled roofs, stained glass and patterned siding. Many sites in the historic residential neighborhood date back to Pacific Grove’s earliest recorded days as a summer retreat for Methodists and the Chautauqua

learning community. Campers could buy 30 ft by 60 ft lots and pitch a framed tent there for the summer in which they resided, some for as little as $25 per lot, or roughly $793 in today’s dollars, a bargain for a house so close to the water!

After touring the historic residential district, the tour guides walkers on a jaunt through Pacific Grove’s noted historic downtown, nine city blocks with a “Main Street” feel along Lighthouse Avenue. Here walkers will find more Queen Anne style homes, including some that have been converted into hotels and others still used as residences by their occupants. Romanesque and Board and Batten styles can also be found, housing commercial businesses and museum exhibits alike.

All in all, the tour features dozens of buildings, both residential and commercial, and offers a living window into Pacific Grove’s earliest days, sure to delight walkers and history enthusiasts looking for a little adventure around town. The tour is available at the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Centers at 584 and 100 Central Avenues in Pacific Grove. More information can be found at (831) 373-3304 or www.pacificgrove.org