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076-82 Carmel 100 Years_152-161 Garcia story 4/24/13 4:14 PM Page 4 The Pine Inn became a center of community life, hosting poetry readings, dances, discussions and even a 1915 Thanksgiving celebration attended by actress Lotta Crabtree. Since the early 1900s, expansions and updates brought a sunroom, stable, tennis court, putting green, rooftop gardens, retail spaces and a glassdomed dining area to the Pine Inn. While not all of those renovations were permanent, guests can explore the hotel's evolution, and its significance in Carmel's history, through antique furnishings and photographs documenting more than a century of change at the property. "We've gone through a lot of soft goods The Pine Inn began life in 1889 as the Hotel Carmelo. Sixteen years later, the main building was moved—on logs—four blocks down Ocean Avenue, where it was redecorated and destined to become a popular village gathering spot. Today's Inn features Il Fornaio Restaurant. updates," says Lloyd, "but overall, the aesthetics that became Carmel-by-the-Sea, a Spanish structures with a new church in 1793, they of the hotel remain the same." expedition led by Father Junipero Serra and quarried stone from the Santa Lucia Mountains. She repositioned the company and, in the Don Gaspar de Portola arrived on the It took four years to construct today's Carmel tradition of those before her, concentrates on Monterey Peninsula. The missionaries and sol- Mission Basilica, and adobe structures were building lasting relationships. diers established a mission in Monterey in 1770. added to enclose the adjacent courtyard. After "[Prior to our ownership], my grandmoth- A year later, they moved a few miles south and the Mexican government closed Carmel er had been an employee of Carmel Realty constructed basic wood and mud buildings Mission in 1834, the complex crumbled and the Company, and my great aunt was one of the where the San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo church's roof collapsed. first female real estate agents in Carmel," Mission now stands. says Mitchell Lynch. "For me, this business Harry Downie stands out among those who When builders decided to replace existing worked to repair the historically and religiously really is personal." significant site. He started a comprehensive CARMEL MISSION excavation and restoration project in 1933. "He was not an architect or a builder, but he More than a century before developers was passionate about Carmel Mission," says divided land into lots and sold the parcels Wright, local history librarian at Carmel's Carmel's famous Mission, on the south end of town, was built between 1793 and 1797 by Spanish missionaries. The first building fell into disrepair around 1834, but was refurbished by local resident Harry Downie in 1933. It is an active church, and hosts community events Harrison Memorial Library. C ARMEL MAGAZINE•SPRING/SUMMER 2013 79

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