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The Southern Pacific Railroad had strong ties to Pacific Grove. In the late 1870s, the Pacific Improvement Company, owned by SP's "Big Four" railway magnates (Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, and Mark Hopkins) built a branch line to bring tourists on the Del Monte Express to their Hotel Del Monte, opened in July 1880.


Steam engine approaches Lovers Point on way to the Pacific Grove depot.
The railroad right-of-way has become today's Recreation Trail.
From photo postcard in the Museum's collection.


Steam engine #1438 and cars at station.
From silver print by Eng. Stewart, May 1904. From the Museum's collection.
After the grand hotel suffered its first fire in 1887, the PI Co. built the El Carmelo Hotel on Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove.


Steam engine #1438 on tracks near Pacific Grove station.
From silver print by Eng. Stewart, May 1904. From the Museum's collection.
In the early 1880s, the PI Co. took possession of the land under Pacific Grove from the Retreat Association. By the late 1880s, they were selling real estate lots in the newly expanded first and second additions to the original Retreat area. On June 29, 1889, rail service was expanded to Pacific Grove.


Southern Pacific's Pacific Grove train depot. From the Museum's collection.
The station (located near Lovers Point at the current site of the Monarch Pines Mobile Home Park) opened on August of that year, and remained in operation until September 1957.


Southern Pacific rail line curves toward Lovers Point. Seven Gables is
visible through trees and Hopkins Marine Station is seen in the background.
Saturday, August 18, 1900, 11:30 a.m. #5.0-289-BLfrom the Museum's Tuttle Collection.
The Monterey and Pacific Grove Railway ran from 1890 until its abandonment in 1923.


Pulled by two horses, streetcar #7 (built by San Jose's Fitzgerald Company in 1891) pauses
in front of the Pacific Improvement Company's office at the corner of Lighthouse and Grand avenues.
1901. #29.3-462-AB from the Museum's Tuttle Collection.
It started as a narrow-gauge horsecar single line, running from Lighthouse Avenue and 17th Street in Pacific Grove, continuing on Lighthouse, turning down Fountain Avenue, continuing on Central and paralleling the Southern Pacific tracks through New Monterey, eventually reaching its terminus at the Hotel Del Monte.


Driver pauses in front of El Carmelo Hotel on Lighthouse Avenue.
1901. #19.1-027-AB, from the Museum's Tuttle Collection.
There were car barns at Central and 2nd and at the Del Monte's west gate. In 1893, the company was reorganized to include a power company. In 1902, the system was electrified, replacing the team of two horses that pulled each car. In 1905, the rail was replaced with standard gauge, and ownership of the company was transferred to a Chicago firm. 1923 marked the end of the line, when the system gave way to Bay Rapid Transit Company's motor coaches.

 

Page created August 24, 2005. Last updated September 7, 2005.
Page copyright 2005 by the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.
Photos from this online exhibit may not be used without permission of the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.