Carmel Magazine

166 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 4 N o other Monterey Peninsula city has as many nicknames as does Pacific Grove. A sam- pling: "Butterfly Town, USA," "Pagrovia," "A Piney Paradise," "God's Kingdom by the Sea," "The Last Hometown," "A Dreamy Seaside Sanctuary" and "The Most Romantic City in the U.S." Those are the Chamber of Commerce-style monikers…most local res- idents refer to the cheerful town simply as, "PG." Located at the tip of the Peninsula, with one toe in the Pacific and one in the Monterey Bay, PG fiercely maintains a character all its own, a reputation of pious- ness, temperance and family-based values. Its grid-like streets are lined with panoply of architectural styles, from California bungalow to board-and-batten to non-descript apar tment blocks to sleek, modern, ocean-view mansions, but it's perhaps the Queen Anne Victorian gingerbread houses that are PG's calling card. This style was popular in the United States between 1870 and 1910— exactly the time the city was being built up. There are somewhere in the neigh- borhood of 1,000 of these beautifully busy and fancifully painted structures in PG. Many are lovingly maintained as single-family homes; a few have been conver ted into successful bed and breakfast businesses: Green Gables, Seven Gables and Gosby House Inns being the most famous examples. While neighboring Monterey was a busy, bustling por t town and crossroads of California history, PG was pretty much ignored until the mid-19th century, when a lighthouse was constructed near Point Pinos to warn ships of the nearby 136 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 4 The Good Old Days, Every Day Pacific Grove Brings the Past into the Present B Y M I C H A E L C H AT F I E L D

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