For 10,000 years, the Esselen people have lived here. At one time, their lands encompassed an area extending from the San Francisco Bay area down to Lopez Point, south of Big Sur. But by the time of colonization, their lands had dwindled (due to pressure from Penutian speaking tribes), to a coastal area stretching forty miles from the Carmel Mission down the Big Sur coast and … [Read more...] about Esselen Women
Remembering Effie
The Lasting Local Impact of a Great California Artist
Euphemia Charlton Fortune, known by friends and family as "Effie," is one of the artists most highly prized by collectors of the early California era. Fortune studied and began her career in a time when the field of art was completely dominated by men, yet she never let that fact deter her from pursuing her career and was respected and embraced by her male peers. She chose to … [Read more...] about Remembering Effie
Historic La Playa
From an Artist's Retreat to a Hotel of Distinction
In 1905, artist Christian "Chris" Jorgensen—an accomplished painter known for his evocative watercolors of California landscapes—started construction on La Playa in the remote and wild dunes of Carmel-by-the-Sea. It was to be a winter home and studio for Jorgensen and his wife, Angela Ghirardelli. Ghirardelli was heiress to the San Francisco chocolate empire, but despite her … [Read more...] about Historic La Playa
The Opulence of an Earlier Era
The Sardine Factory Celebrates 55 Years of Distinctive Dining in Monterey
Certain places demand a certain level of formality, nothing pretentious or unattainable, just an expectation to put your best foot forward. In times past, there were more places in society that required such a heightened level of formality—be it a weekly trip to a place of worship or just working as a sales girl at Saks 5th Avenue in the Carmel Plaza, where a strict dress code … [Read more...] about The Opulence of an Earlier Era
95 Years of Art
Celebrating an Association That Shaped Carmel
This year marks the 95th anniversary of the Carmel Art Association (CAA)—the second oldest continuously operating artist cooperative in the nation and the oldest west of the Mississippi—and to celebrate this milestone, a 95th anniversary historic exhibition and sale benefiting the CAA, entitled "95 Years," is taking place both in the gallery and online. Art is at the very … [Read more...] about 95 Years of Art