The Monterey History & Art Association was founded to help preserve Monterey's treasures: its fine adobes, historic landmarks, and artistic and maritime heritage. The MHAA's properties include the Maritime Museum of Monterey, located in the heart of the Monterey State Historic Park on Custom House Plaza, and three historic buildings that are open to the public: the Perry-Downer House and Historic Costume Gallery, the Mayo Hayes O'Donnell Library, and Casa Serrano, a superb adobe home fully Furnished with antiques. MHAA also owns Fremont House (now leased to Parker Lusseau Pastries) and Doud House (occupied by the Historic Garden League and Bautista Moon Photography).

The organization celebrates. The organization celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2006 with an exhibit at the Maritime Museum entitled '75 Treasures,' free admission to the Museum in the month of June, and the Adobe Fiesta, June 24. Visit the website for a full schedule of events.

The Maritime Museum of Monterey

The Maritime Museum of Monterey can trace its origins as far back as 1931, when Amelie Elkinton, then curator of Monterey’s old Mexican-era Custom House, dreamed of a waterfront maritime museum. The Monterey History & Art Association first began its own quest for a waterfront museum in 1966. But the need became more pressing in 1970, when Adele Knight, widow of MHAA member and former Association president Allen Knight, donated her late husband’s extensive maritime collection to the Association.

The first Maritime Museum of Monterey opened in 1971 as the Allen Knight Maritime Museum, housed in the basement of the Monterey Museum of Art on Calle Principle. After extensive planning and fundraising, the new Maritime Museum of Monterey and History Center opened its doors on October 31, 1992.

Today the Maritime Museum holds almost 6000 artifacts, over 50,000 photographs, and 6000 books and papers in the collection. The 580 glass prisms of the historic Fresnel lens from the Point Sur Lightstation illuminate the Maritime Museum and its seven exhibit areas, from the Rumsien/Ohlone Indians and Spanish explorers, to the USS Macon and war in the Pacific, to Monterey’s era as the sardine capital of the world.

Casa Serrano

Casa Serrano is classic Monterey, in its story and its design. It was the home of Monterey’s second alcade (mayor) under American rule, Don Florencio Serrano, who emigrated from Spain via Mexico City in the 1830s. He found employment in the small village of Monterey as a teacher and clerk in various offices. He and his wife had six children, and in 1843, Don Florencio built them a home on Pacific Street. The house had 20” thick adobe walls, supporting heavy beams which in turn supported ceiling and shingled roof – all of redwood.

Surprisingly spacious inside, Casa Serrano is insulated from street noise by those adobe walls. The interior was painted white in the Mexican manner to reflect light from the small windows. As in most adobes built during the Mexican period, it was oriented to face east-west, to take advantage of morning and afternoon sunshine at the front and back doors. The original kitchen was outside at the back of the house.

Don Florencio Serrano taught in the school he had created until his death in 1877. The Serrano children lived in the house through another generation but eventually the family scattered and the building was put to other uses, including three restaurants.

In 1958, Monterey History & Art Association rescued the building, and restored it as a showpiece for local art and antiques. One of the most important historic structures in Monterey, it is especially significant in that the abode part of the building is intact.

All the rooms display artwork and antique furnishings. To the front are a bedroom and a parlor where Don Florencio Serrano opened his school in 1846. The middle room displays drawings, sculpture and paintings by Jo Mora as well as period furniture.

At the rear of the house is a large and airy reception room, added on by later occupants, adorned with early California paintings and antique furnishings. There is a large, modern, well-equipped kitchen and two bathrooms flanking the door to the larger of the two garden patios.

Casa Serrano is open to the public for docent-led tours, and hosts dozens of meetings, receptions and special events every year. It is one of the most popular stops during Monterey’s Christmas in the Adobes.

Perry-Downer House and Costume Gallery

One of Monterey’s great historic homes, this unique example of an early frame house was built in 1860 by a whaling captain, Manuel Perry, and his wife Mary de Mello Silva of Boston. The house was remodeled around 1900 from one to two stories, then again in 1966, when it was lovingly rescued and restored by Webster and Maggie Downer. The Monterey History & Art Association acquired it in 1997 to house its Costume Collection.

The Historic Costumes collection is perfectly suited to the warm, home-like setting of this mid-Victorian building. A fine example of the popular Queen Anne style, the house retains its original porch, its columns topped by delicate spandrel arches, bay and stained-glass windows, wainscotted interiors, and a spiral staircase.

The building has been through several incarnations. The house built by the Perrys received a kitchen addition in 1906. In 1910, house was raised and a new ground floor level and foundation inserted beneath it: its original framing of two-by-fours was insufficient to sustain the weight of an additional floor.

When the Downers began their restoration of the house, it had been vacant and vandalised for three years. One new two-story addition with five-sided bay windows was added to the north elevation, and a second added to balance it on the south side. 

The adjacent Carriage House was also revitalized by the Downers, and given a lovely stained-glass ceiling brought down from San Francisco.