517 9th Street

Between Junipero Avenue and Spruce Avenue
1 bed, 1 bath, 711 SF on a 2,400 SF lot
Built, 1928
Last sold, 2000

The “City of Homes” era (1927-1945) produced a scattered layer of new infill houses across Forest and Pine, including this Spanish Eclectic cottage. If Spanish Colonial Revival was the period’s leading style for new civic and commercial buildings, its new homes were smaller and looser, selectively using stucco walls, clay-tile roofs, shaped gables, decorative vents, and deep-set doorways.

This cottage concentrates those elements on a single front elevation. The clay-tile roof turns toward the street in a gable marked by three circular vents.

Tile returns above the garage and front window in two small hoods, then appears again on the front steps.

The front door sits at the end of a tiled stair that narrows as it rises, closing in toward the doorway. A small tiled landing sits at the top, just before the door disappears into the recess.

A vine runs across the wall and over the entry, leaving the door partly screened by leaves. Outside the front window, burgundy, blade-like foliage rises above lower shrubs and flowers.

Three Things I Love About the Home

1. The Weathered tile
The roof tiles have uneven terracotta color and softened edges. Their irregular surface keeps the low roofline from reading as a clean geometric outline.

2. The window composition
The large front window is divided into a square grid, with a diamond-patterned panel directly beneath it. The two patterns sit one above the other and give the center of the façade a second layer of detail.

3. The dark doorway
The front door sits behind the wall line, below vines and beyond the tiled stair. The recess forms a dark pocket within the brighter stucco façade.

508 4th Street

Between Spruce Street and Eardley Avenue
2 beds, 2 baths, 1,209 SF on a 5,500 SF lot
Built, 1930
Last sold, 2026

On Forest and Pine’s Monterey-facing side, the grid pattern breaks apart at Eardley Avenue, which runs along the divide with New Monterey. The Spanish Revival sits just inside that line, on a flat residential block that enjoys peace and quiet just a few blocks uphill from downtown.

Past the slatted wood fence, a narrow lawn runs between the sidewalk and the porch.

 

 

Shrubs and planters frame the open lawn. At the left side of the house, the lawn gives way to patio under a wood pergola. Facing the street, the front porch extends along the house beyond the patio.

 

 

Above it, red tile follows the long, loose curve that gives the front of the house its distinctive shape. The curve has an irregular, handmade quality.

 

 

Beneath it, the porch recedes through a rounded stucco arch doorway. On either side of the entry, large sliding-glass doors take up much of the front wall. To the left, the doors open onto a shallow patio set back from the lawn, with room for two chairs and a small table.

 

The other set looks into the dining room, so that the front of the house offers two broad views across the threshold: one from the patio inward and one from the dining table out toward the street.

Three Things I Love About the Home

1. The Pergola
A wood pergola makes a shaded place to sit beside the house.

 

 

2. The Tiled Entry
Small brown diamond tiles give the front step a crisp pattern.

 

3. The recessed Porch
The porch recedes beneath the tile roof, with the front door set farther back inside a rounded arch.

 

602 Forest Avenue

Corner of Forest Avenue and Junipero Avenue
5 beds, 3.5 baths, 2,900 SF on a 6,500 SF lot
Built, 1908
Last sold, 2012

You pass it on a school run, on the way to the market, heading downtown or coming home. Being “The Purple House” gives it clear presence along one the street—visible in fog, bright sun, and the brief glance between blocks when driving down Forest.

The historic Craftsman sits at the corner, where passing traffic and foot travel put it in view again and again. Its porch, white trim, and picket fence come later, after the purple has caught your eye.

Up close, the facade is organized around that entry. A narrow covered porch frames the yellow glazed door at the top of a short stair. One column on each side supports the porch roof, and exposed rafter tails show along its outer edges.

Above, the larger roof repeats the same exposed wood detail at the eaves, with simple framing beneath the gable. Divided upper window panes and white trim carry the pattern across the windows, porch, and roofline.

The property extends behind the main house toward a separate detached guesthouse.

Facing Junipero Avenue and marked “601 Junipero,” it gives the property a second street presence with the independence of a smaller standalone house.

The courtyard between the two buildings serves as the property’s shared yard. Enclosed by fencing and set back from both avenues, it creates the feeling of a small private compound built around the two residences.

Three Things I Love About the Home

1. The Yellow Door
A color pairing that makes the whole house sing.

2. The Stone Courtyard Wall
Privacy in the middle of a very visible lot.

3. The Guest House Balcony
A little lookout over the private shared yard.

#1: Trimmer Hill, 230 6th Street
#2: The Gosby House Inn, 643 Lighthouse Avenue
#3: 605 Pine Avenue
#4: The Butterfly House, 309 9th Street
#5: Margaret Lawrey 1887, 592 Central Avenue
#6: Captain’s Castle, 106 7th Street
#7: 178 Central Avenue
#8: Dr. Andrew J. Hart 1894, 649 Lighthouse Avenue
#9: Frank Clark 1887, 231 Central Avenue
#10: Toad Hall, 150 19th Street

#11: The Seven Gables Inn, 555 Ocean View Boulevard
#12: 365 Ocean View Boulevard
#13: Dr. C.L. Roe 1886, 123 Forest Avenue
#14: Mrs. Mary Nichols, 131 7th Street
#15: Mary McCormick 1893, 226 Willow Street
#16: 138 10th Street
#17: Mrs. K.E. Sanderson, 1904, 108 13th Street
#18: Catherine Brown, 1903, 410 Lighthouse Avenue
#19: The Boulders, 289 Lighthouse Avenue
#20: L.A. Rogers 1887, 134 Grand Avenue

#21: Caroline Thornton, 1883, 137 16th Street
#22: Mr. C.E. Davison 1888, 352 Central Avenue
#23: 123 12th Street
#24: Mrs. J.A. Hoyt 1891, 144 14th Street
#25: Martha Cummings 1905, 215 Lobos Avenue
#26: 157 Carmel Avenue
#27: 109 14th Street
#28: The Daffodil House, 132 Forest Avenue
#29: James J. Stevinson 1883, 129 Pacific Avenue
#30: 171 Laurel Avenue

#31: 228 1st Street
#32: 243 Lighthouse Avenue
#33: 211 3rd Street
#34: 226 Laurel Avenue
#35: 215 9th Street
#36: 615 Ocean View Boulevard
#37: F. Applewood 1885, 106 19th Street
#38: Margaret Gholz 1921, 381 Laurel Avenue
#39: Mrs. B.L. Hollenbeck 1888, 118 Caledonia Avenue
#40: Mrs. C.B. Sillman 1894, 162 Pacific Avenue

#41: C.A. Towne 1904, 211 14th Street
#42: 403 Lighthouse Avenue
#43: 115 1st Street
#44: 189 Pine Avenue
#45: Merle F. Harper 1926, 402 4th Street
#46: Mrs. Charlotte Saal, 316 8th Street
#47: 410 Pine Avenue
#48: 468 Pine Avenue
#49: 308 Fountain Avenue
#50: Lena F. Lofland 1909, 402 Forest Avenue

420 Forest Avenue

Corner of Forest Avenue and Spruce Avenue
3 beds, 3 baths, 2,658 SF on a 7,200 SF lot
Built, 1910
Last sold, 1985

This Victorian-influenced Craftsman cottage has the kind of street exposure that gives it an immediate public identity: it is easy to find and easy to recognize, being positioned along one of the town’s key routes.

The garden is layered, colorful, and unusually full for such a visible lot. Potted plants, shrubs, flowering beds, and mature canopy create depth, texture, and seasonal change.

The result is a front garden with real visual richness: varied heights, mixed forms, and enough density to give the property a distinctly cultivated look.

The home combines a steep, compact roofline with broad eaves, exposed brackets, a projecting bay, and a mix of tall grouped windows that give the façade both weight and detail.

The exterior has a layered composition: strong horizontal trim, a deep roof overhang, and openings that vary between narrow vertical windows and larger bay forms. A small front gable, decorative shingle work in the gable face, and the centered entry add a finer-scale accent against the larger wall surfaces.

The windows are one of the home’s strongest architectural features, with tall grouped openings, bay-window glazing, and small decorative inserts.

Several panes carry stained-glass or leaded-glass treatment, including circular motifs and colored accents. Their varied sizes and placements give the front elevation an uneven, handcrafted feel.

Three Things I Love About the Home

1. The Entry
The short staircase leads to an enclosed landing with a wall of windows facing both streets.

2. The Trees
The canopy provides shade overhead while the front tree add privacy along Forest Avenue

3. The Stained Glass
A burst of color that transforms with the light

308 Fountain Avenue

Between Laurel Avenue and Pine Avenue
3 beds, 2 baths, 1,520 SF on a 3,800 SF lot
Built, 1900
Last sold, 2023

It began as a compact, one-story house with a simple rectangular shape, an open front porch, and a modest early-20th-century domestic character.

What followed was not a light update but a major reworking: the foundation was raised to make room for a basement garage, a second story was added, a broad wraparound porch reshaped the exterior edges, and the original porch was enclosed, changing the entry sequence and window pattern enough that the earlier form could no longer be read clearly.

By the time those changes were complete, the building’s footprint, massing, and design had moved so far from the original house that it no longer was legible as the earlier structure.

The house is organized as a broad, two-story volume with a low, sheltering roof and a strong emphasis on horizontal lines. A raised masonry base anchors the building , while the upper walls are lighter and the exterior edge is carried by deep overhangs, exposed rafters, battered porch supports, and a wraparound porch that softens the mass and gives the façade its layered, handmade quality.

The house uses a compact parcel with unusual efficiency by folding a large amount of usable space into the building envelope itself. The basement garage absorbs parking at the lowest level, the wraparound porch and perimeter circulation give the house a much larger exterior presence than the lot size suggests, and the elevated deck-like areas extend the living space outward without requiring a big yard. The result is a property that feels tightly organized and layered, with the site working hard from the ground level up rather than relying on open lawn or leftover space.

Three Things I Love About the Home

1.The wrap-around deck

2. The mixed-material deck

3. d

468 Pine Avenue

Corner of 12th Street to Corner of 13th Street
Medical facility on a 15,912 lot
Built, 1902
Last sold, 2024

In 1901, Cleveland banker J. J. Osborne bought one of Pine Avenue’s most prominent lots and commissioned architect William H. Weeks to design a Queen Anne mansion that would stand out. It did.

With its tower, height, and formal siting, the house quickly became one of the Monterey Peninsula’s signature properties. Its scale also made it adaptable, allowing it to move from private residence into later rental and institutional uses.

By midcentury, the house had already shifted away from single-family use. Under the name Pine Manor, the residence operated first as an apartment building and then as a guest house.

In 1961, it entered its longest second life as Beacon House, an addiction recovery center, that operated out of the building until  2020, after which the center renovated and reopened as New Start Recovery Solutions Monterey.

The parcel is one of the most important parts of the story and its size is why the lot could support such a substantial form in the first place. The front landscape is restrained but effective: a curved walk, clipped lawn, and low planting beds create a measured approach and gives its towered façade room to stand off the street.

The house is tall and asymmetric with a dominant corner tower, a steep and varied roofline, and strong vertical emphasis. Its massing is layered, with projecting wall planes, deep porch space, and upper-level balcony forms that give the façade its depth, movement and variety.

Three Things I Love About the Home

1. The Tower
Creates a lookout position high above Pine Avenue.

2. The Balcony
Outdoor space at a more comfortable elevation.

3. Adaptability
Substantial enough to reinvent itself and thrive.

410 Pine Avenue

Corner of Pine Avenue and 11th Street
Triplex: 7 bathrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,528 SF on a 3,598 SF lot
Built, 1929
Last sold, 2022

Pine Avenue gives this English Revival Manor a fantastic showcase for its walled front court, which leads from the sidewalk to the entry through a tight foreground of stone and garden before proceeding down a paved off-center path.

The home takes up most of the lot. This s a property where the footprint is the main event, and the yard really serves to frame the house.

That compact relationship between building and lot also helps explain why the home looks so substantial from the street: the mass is concentrated, the roof rises high above a relatively small site, and the open ground is positioned directly in front of the house, keeping your attention there.

Today the layout is organized as a multi-family residence, with three separate living areas, each with its own exterior entrance, kitchen, bedroom space, bathroom, and laundry, with interior access tying the levels together.

That allows the occupants to share a building without sharing an experience, which is special at this scale.

The roof is steep, with a tall front gable and multiple planes over a stepped massing. The facade showcases grouped windows, stucco–like wall surfaces, to frame an arched entry.

The style looks rooted in older English-influenced residential design, but updated enough in its details and use to read as a layered, later-adapted property, and decidedly not a preserved period piece.

Three Things I Love About the Home

1. The Stone Wall
Adds a tactile edge that stands apart from the smoother house exterior.

2. The Front Court
The off-center walkway separates a compact sitting area from a broader garden and lawn.

3. The Red Door
Not necessarily a permanent feature but the right color choice; it throws a bright red accent against the muted exterior.

316 8th Street

Between Laurel Avenue and Pine Avenue
2 beds, 1 bath, 683 SF on
Built, 1889
Last sold, 2013

This folk Victorian cottage was constructed as part of the infill accompanying the town’s incorporation, when the block was filling in with small wood-frame houses. Long ownership tenures have left a quiet imprint: few permits, few alterations, and a core structure that has remained largely unchanged since construction.

As the neighboring homes on this block have gradually shifted, expanded, or changed, the cottage’s form and placement have held steady.

The dramatic stair and landing approach is the home’s signature exterior feature. A long run of steps rises from the sidewalk to a mid-landing, then continues towards the porch, so the entry unfolds in two parts instead of one direct climb.

That extra pause at the landing changes the pace of arrival and gives the small cottage a more formal threshold. White railings tie the stair to the raised porch, so the approach becomes part of the architecture, not just access.

A modest structure built from a few simple volumes, the facade is made up of two gabled masses split by a shallow porch that acts as the visual hinge.

The left bay holds the narrow porch and entry, the right bay pushes forward as a second block. That offset gives the façade a layered shape that is legible from the street. The raised lot and exterior stair leaves space for a side gate and a path back to the yard, adding a measure of privacy.

Three Things I Love About the Home

1.The Elevated Lot
Enables the extended approach and offers more privacy and quiet.

2.The White Trim
The white staircase and porch trim give the entry a sharper, more stylish finish, especially at the corner where the porch roof meets the front wall and the decorative brackets add a subtle bit of flourish.

3. The Left-side Access
The side gate gives the property a direct route to the backyard tucked neatly out of the main view.