City of Neighborhoods #2: Lighthouse District and Corridor

The bustling Lighthouse District is PG’s vibrant downtown and commercial core for over a century.

Lighthouse Avenue was plotted in 1874, beginning as a practical wagon road and supply route, carrying materials from Monterey to the to Point Pinos Lighthouse.

In 1903, Pacific Grove used the electrification of the Monterey & Pacific Grove Street Railway as the opening for a full downtown buildout along Lighthouse Avenue.

The city placed overhead wires above Lighthouse, then the first wave of permanent commercial buildings followed at the key intersections: Hotel Del Mar at Lighthouse and 16th, the Winston Building, and, at Lighthouse and Forest, the Bank of Pacific Grove and the “Work Block,” a mixed-use commercial block with storefronts and offices.

That combination turned Lighthouse from a practical route into the town’s commercial center, with transit, utilities and private investment all reinforcing one another.

East of the business district is the Lighthouse Corridor, where Lighthouse Avenue splits into a divided, grade-separated roadway, with the lower bayside alignment turning west toward Pacific Grove and the higher alignment rising toward Monterey via David Avenue.