These influential adobe houses made up California's earliest capital and were the site of the state's first constitutional convention.

Today the historic buildings retain their rich heritage, preserving an important part of Californian as well as Spanish, Mexican, and American history.

The Custom House, built around 1821 by the Mexican government, is California's first historic landmark and its oldest public building.

[6] The Cooper-Molera Adobe was featured in Bob Vila's A&E Network production Guide to Historic Homes of America.

This process illuminated two activities that were of particular interest to the family: animal husbandry and farming (specifically artichoke growing).

[8] The Larkin House, itself designated a National Historic Landmark, combined Spanish building methods with New England architectural features.

Previously, Spanish and Mexican construction relied on unfired adobe blocks, which required extremely thick walls to support upper stories and plaster coatings to repel water.

Dickinson planned to make the house bigger, but left for the California gold fields with only the extant structure completed.

[13] This adobe, California's First Theater, was built by English seaman Jack Swan in 1846–47 as a lodging house and tavern for sailors.

Swan built a small stage and provided benches, whale-oil lamps, candles for footlights and blankets as curtains.

Stevenson lived there while recovering his health as he was crossing the United States to court his future wife Fanny Osbourne.

Stevenson wrote some articles for the local Monterey newspaper, including one that beautifully evoked "the Old Pacific Capital."

The Stevenson House features a bas relief depicting the sickly author writing in bed,[16] and is California Historical Landmark #352.

[19] Rafael Estrada constructed the Casa Soberanes, an adobe brick home on a hillside overlooking the bay, during the 1840s.

The house contains furnishings that are a blend of early New England and China trade pieces mixed in with modern Mexican folk art.

Wine bottles, whale bones, and abalone shells border paths meandering through the sheltered garden.

The origin of the name could be attributed to a period of time when the building was used as saloon and later as a gold dust exchange for miners.