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May - June 2025
Volume 5, Issue 3
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New Signage for Stanton Center
Two years ago, the signage on Stanton Center highlighted the Dali exhibition and the Magic Show then offered during the evenings. These signs were removed and banners highlighting the Jo Mora Collection were designed and exhibited around the exterior of Stanton Center. The approval process with the city’s Architectural Review Committee (ARC) allowed these new banners contingent upon replacing them with a mix of permanent signs and exhibit-focused banners within two years.
New signage is now in production. We have worked with Robert Wecker of the Wecker Group to develop the designs, Monterey Signs is engaged in production/installation, the ARC approved the designs, and city planners are processing permits as needed. Most of the design, permits, production, and installation is being funded by a grant from the Community Foundation for Monterey County – Robert and Virginia Stanton Endowment. Thanks to the Italian Heritage Society for covering costs associated with the banners to be placed on the pillar in front of Stanton Center.
Three of the designs are presented. These images are only illustrative.
- Gary Spradlin, President, Monterey History and Art Association
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At the top of the article is an example of the three permanent signs: one on each side of the balcony and one facing the parking lot.
Left: Italian Heritage Society banners that will hang on the pillar in front of the building.
Above: an example of the three large banners featuring current exhibits. One facing the underpass and two facing the wharf.
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Arthur Hill Gilbert (1893-1970)
Arthur was born on June 10, 1893 to parents Tilman Irving & Edda Mae Gilbert in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. He had 2 siblings, older brother Victor (1891) & younger sister Marjorie (1895). He graduated from the Evanston Academy in 1913 & was a student @ Northwestern University. He was a member of the Art Students’ League of Chicago & the Chicago Society of Artists.
In 1917 he attended the US Naval Academy Officer’s School @ Annapolis & later served as an ensign in WW1.
After the war he & family members moved to Los Angeles where he attended the Otis Art Institute.
LA Times art critic Antony Anderson commented in their 10/8/1922 paper “Arthur Hill Gilbert, who is exhibiting over sixty landscapes at the MacDowell Club, Tajo Building, was also a business man till a few years ago, and he, too, left business for the paint pots of Bohemia…The landscapes he is showing are from Illinois, from France and from California…His talent is undeniably of a high order. He masses his forms well, his compositions are always finely balanced. In color, too, his work is excellent.” The same critic exclaimed in a LA Times 9/30/1923 article about an exhibition @ Leonard’s Gallery that “Arthur Hill Gilbert was young and full of talent. His “Capistrano Mission,” painted on a very recent trip to these eminently paintable ruins, is richer and more reasonant (sic) in color than most mission studies, and this full gamut is carried very successfully from the gay garden to the gray walls and sky.”
Gilbert held numerous exhibitions throughout the Southland during the 1920s. In the 3/2/1926 Riverside Daily Press one reads: “Arthur Hill Gilbert, whose pictures have been shown at the Mission Inn for two weeks, left today for Los Angeles. Later in the week he will leave for a trip to the High Sierras, in company with Leslie Curtis and Haldane Douglas, two other Los Angeles painters whose works have been shown in the Biltmore exhibits in Riverside. The trio plan to remain in the mountains a month, and expect to bring back many fine paintings.” In a 7/20/1927 article in the same newspaper one finds: “Warren L. Squires, this city, and Arthur Hill Gilbert, Beverly Hills, have just returned from a month's painting in the High Sierras. They made the trip by automobile, going 10,000 feet up, where they encountered snows and much cold weather. Mr. Squires has exhibited California scenes in Riverside, Hollywood and Los Angeles, and expects to place one or two pictures at the Southern California fair. Mr. Gilbert exhibits every year at the Mission Inn. His paintings at the Ambassador hotel are always visited by Riverside artists. He plans to leave August 1 for Europe, to remain until the first of the year. Upon his return, it is his plan to hang several of his European canvases in the Southern California exhibits.”
On 9/20/1928 Arthur Gilbert married his first wife Muriel Beardsley Flint at the home of her parents Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Flint in LA’s Chester Place. Victor Gilbert was his brother’s best man. The 9/21/1928 edition of the LA Evening Press stated “The wedding, which was one of the most fashionable nuptials of the year and of wide intrest (sic) here and in the North, was witnessed by about 800 guests and was followed by a reception, supper and dance. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert left for an extended motoring trip, at the conclusion of which they will go to Pebble Beach, where a new home is awaiting them.” In 1929 Gilbert won the Second Hallgarten Prize @ the National Academy of Design in New York for his painting ‘Monterey Oaks’. The following year he received this organization’s Murphy & Ranger Prizes & was chosen as an associate member. On 6/18/1930 in the SF Examiner we learn that he was granted a divorce from Muriel on grounds of willful desertion.
In 1931 the Carmel Art Association held an exhibition from August 15-24 in the Denny-Watrous Gallery. It included works by CAA’s 4 academicians: William Ritschel, Paul Dougherty, Armin Hansen & Arthur Hill Gilbert. In October 1931 he & fellow artist F. Luis Mora were in charge of hanging pictures for the Monterey County Fair. The 10/3/1931 Oakland Tribune said the art building “housed for the first time the work of all prominent Monterey county artists, many with world famous reputations. The art exhibition has been declared the finest of its kind ever shown at any county fair.” The brown haired & brown eyed artist also had work in the Hotel Del Monte’s exhibition in November 1931. One of Gilbert’s pupils was Santa Cruz artist Cor de Gavere.
The 11/23/1932 Hanford Sentinel reported that artist Arthur Hill Gilbert & Mrs. Audine Abbott Woods were secretly married more than a month ago in Southern California. The couple resided for many years @ their Monterey home which was located @ 1306 Munras Avenue. Gilbert’s painting ‘California Hills’ was included in SF’s 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition.
The 11/08/1952 Lodi News-Sentinel reported that Stockton’s Haggin Art Galleries featured “Twenty-seven original paintings, some quite large, mainly landscapes and seascapes, being shown by three National Academicians: Arthur Hill Gilbert, A.N.A., William Ritschel, N.A., and Armin Hansen, N.A. The major lifetime work of all three has California, its shores and hillsides as a theme…Arthur Hill Gilbert will have increased interest for Stockton from the fact that recently the artist and Mrs. Gilbert have taken up residence in this area, dividing their time about equally between Stockton and Carmel (Monterey). Mrs. Gilbert was a Sonora girl and recently made over an old house on Roberts island to serve as a studio and residence for the couple. Included in the present exhibit are several of the recent paintings Gilbert has done out-of-doors in the Delta area.” The 9/11/1961 Lodi News-Sentinel noted “about a year ago, the Gilberts sold their Carmel (Monterey) residence and are now living year round at their 160 acre ranch.” In 1964 Gilbert exhibited @ the 139th Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design. On April 28, 1970 the 76 year old artist died.
Arthur Hill Gilbert was a member of the National Academy of Design, California Art Club, Carmel Art Association, Laguna Beach Art Association, Bohemian Club & Salmagundi Club. He has works held @ SF’s Legion of Honor Museum, National Academy of Design, LA County Museum of Art, Utah’s Springville Museum of Art, Monterey Museum of Art, & the Bohemian Club.
Casa Serrano has 3 of his oil paintings in its collection.
One shows Monterey Bay, the 2nd provides a California landscape & the last work (a gift of Carmel & Lydia Martin) presents a ranch.
Michael Mazgai
Above photo: Arthur Hill Gilbert (photo credit Paul Miller)
| | Arthur Hill Gilbert (photo credit Tom Nichols) | | Arthur Hill Gilbert (1893-1970) Monterey Bay Landscape | | Arthur Hill Gilbert (1893-1970) California Landscape | | Arthur Hill Gilbert (1893-1970) Ranch (gift of Carmel and Lydia Martin) | | |
Local People
Mary Alice Cerrito Fettis
Mary Alice Cerrito Fettis is a dedicated community leader. She currently serves
on the Fisherman’s Wharf Association Board of Directors as Past President and is Chair of the annual Whalefest Monterey event held on the Wharf. Mary Alice was the recipient of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary Foundation Seastar award for Education. Under Mary Alice's leadership, the California State Senate and Assembly awarded Whalefest Monterey with Certificates of Recognition. Whalefest recently received a proclamation from the City of Monterey.
She is Past President and serves on the Board of Directors of the North Fremont Business District and is a member of Monterey Commercial Property Owners Association. She serves on the Merienda Committee. She is Past Co-chair of the Merienda, Past Board member, Monterey History & Art Association, Past Board member Hellenic Cultural Institute, and Past President Monterey County Hospitality Association. Mary Alice was born and raised in Monterey and graduated from Santa Catalina School and received her BA and MAT from Santa Clara University. As an international charter flight attendant, Mary Alice traveled to over 45 countries which gave her a broad view of life. She managed the family restaurant, banquet, and entertainment businesses and was also a real estate agent with Pan American Real Estate over 25 years. Currently, she is a real estate property manager representing family interests.
Mary Alice is married to Nicholas Fettis who plays, and tunes pianos and composes original music, some of which incorporate humpback whale song.
If you have a friend or relative that would like to share their story about living in or around Monterey, please contact Monterey History and Art Association at MHAA.org1931@gmail.com
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Peninsula Diary
Mayo Hayes O’Donnell
Mayo’s two columns, published in the Monterey Peninsula Herald, give a delightful picture of one of the adventures she shared with her friend, Victor Mossop as they travelled in southern Monterey County.
April 24, 1951
On the Original Camino Real
Nature lovers who are looking at this season of the year for the best places to see wildflowers should make the delightful trip to San Antonio Mission near Jolon. There are veritable carpets of lupin, poppies, yellow daisies, Indian paint brush, larkspur and many other varieties of spring flowers in bloom over a wide range of country, thickly studded with large and ancient oaks. The silence of the country, the freshness of the air and the perfume of the flowers, all combine to make one feel at peace with the world.
We left Monterey early on Thursday morning in company with Mrs. William Kneass, the curator of the Stevenson House, and Victor Mossop, an excellent guide with a fund of information about the early history of the country through which we planned to travel.
The River road, to the right of the Salinas River bridge, was the route we chose, Very soon after leaving the main highway one can still see traces of the old Hill Town crossing, for the tracks in the road which led to the crossing, are still to be seen if the motorist does not rush by.
Then Las Palmas ranch, the David Spence ranch, both to our right. On the latter property is the remains of an old adobe and nearby is the site of another adobe where Anastacio Garcia killed Under-sheriff Joaquin de la Torre and two citizen volunteers, Charles Layton and Jim Beckwith, when they went there from Monterey to arrest him for the murder of Lewis F. Belcher, the “Big Eagle of Monterey.”
We were now on the original Camino Real which had been traveled in the early days by De Anza and other explorers and the Mission Fathers. Mr. Mossop pointed out the Guadalupe ranch to the right, which was later the home of Spence and then the Arguello family. The huge holdings of Juan Malarin, which had been granted to him in the early 1830s, adjoins that of Jose Maria Soberanes, granted to him in 1841. Soberanes later lost the 8,794 acres to Estrada.
We paused briefly at the Somavia School to look upon the camping site of the De Anza expedition. The spot has been identified many times in past years by the descendants of the men who made the trek.
The Lugo Rancho and then the Soberanes Rancho have preserved the adobe homes on each. The Soberanes grant was originally part of the ex-Mission Soledad property, and contained 113,000 acres. The Lugo Rancho was known in 1939 as the Paraje de Sanchez (Pasture of Sanchez). The Felicino Soberanes adobe, very near to the road as we traveled south, was pointed out by Mr. Mossop as the birthplace of Mrs. David Jacks. A bit further on and to the left was the Rancho Los Coches, 8,794 acres in 1841 when it was granted to Josefa Soberanes and confirmed in 1855 to Maria J. Soberanes.
Adjoining the Los Coches is the Arroyo Seco Rancho, which contained 16,523 acres when it was granted to Joaquin de la Torre in 1840. Later it was sold to Pedro Zabala who built an adobe residence on it.
The historic trail now led us out to the main highway where the first spot to be pointed out by our guide was Thompson gulch, noted as the setting for an early day stagecoach robbery. It was the route of Vasquez, the bandit, who crossed the river at this point to go on to his hideout at the Pinnacles.
Just beyond the State Park Commission’s rock marker for San Antonio Mission we turned to the right. We had left the fertile Salinas Valley and its hundreds of irrigated farms with long straight rows of lettuce and other vegetables and masses of waving grain, for a hilly country where cattle roamed.
We were soon passing the San Hernabe Rancho, which had been granted to Jesus Molina and where the first adobe building in that part of the country had been built. David Leese was once the ranch manager, and it was there, we were told that his daughter, Grace Ten Eyke of Pacific Grove, was born. The Tom Doud ranch is immediately across the road. In 1885 this ranch also part of the San Bernabe, was owned by Francisco Garcia. His daughter married Henry Cocks, to whom the grant was confirmed in 1859. It was later sold to Juan B. Cooper and Cooper sold to Doud.
April 25, 1951
Set Like a Jewel
To travel the El Camino Real in a fast car is one thing but to travel that historic route with the intriguing purpose of discovering its history and the history of the land and the people who owned that land in the early days of California, is another. We had that fascinating experience last week.
In yesterday’s Diary we reviewed the trip from Monterey to the turn off the highway on the way to San Antonio Mission and Jolon. After passing the San Bernabe rancho, we were still on the old Camino Real. We paused at the Toothache Stage Station on the right. Mrs. Alfred G. Perry, who with Mr. Perry recently celebrated her golden wedding anniversary in New Monterey, spent her girlhood in an old adobe home still standing by the roadside. Her name was Bravo and her mother was a Garcia, Mr. Mossop related.
The Plasquett place was followed by the Cock’s adobe and a stage station where a little old wooden store building is still in evidence. This place was later sold to Jim Lowe. We passed the Avila ranch where we noted the white headstones in the tiny cemetery on the hill.
We turned off the main road to follow for a few miles the old trail of the mission fathers up Coches Canyon. It was over this trail that the Indians carried the body of Father Sarria to his final resting place before the altar of San Antonio after his death at Mission Soledad of want and hunger in 1835.
Other priests interred there are Father Buenaventura Sitjar, who was present at the founding; Padre Francisco Pujol who came to California in 1762 and died at the mission on March 1, 1801; Father Doroteo Abris, pastor of San Antonio from 1853 to 1882, died Feb. 5, 1882; Padre Juan Bautista Sancho served the mission 26 years and died Feb. 11, 1830.
Several miles up Coches Canyon we came upon a charming square adobe house, completely surrounded by an open porch over which very old grape vines grow, their huge trunks winding up the pillars which supported the overhanging roof. It is now the headquarters of a state forest ranger, and the housewife permitted us to see the very large sala, or living room, where in the old days the ranchers gathered from miles around to dance the nights away.
Returning to the main road, the Mission San Antonio de Padua de los Robles soon burst into view as we passed the huge William Randolph Hearst Milpitas ranch house, and we got our first view of all the gorgeous wild flowers which carpet the valley.
It was on July 14, 1771, that Mission San Antonio was founded. But when the river dried up and irrigation had failed, the faithful Father Sitjar changed to another site, on the banks of the arroyo half a league farther up the Los Robles Valley. The approximate location of the first church and dwelling was pointed out to us by our guide as we rode away from the beautiful mission as it appears today after restoration.
It is interesting to note that in 1805 San Antonio de Padua had a population of 1,296 and now, 146 years later, there are 33 inhabitants – all brothers of the Franciscan Order. It is set like a jewel at the head of a beautiful and unspoiled valley. No city has grown up there as around it hovers the peace and beauty of ancient days. It was the third of the missions to be established by Father Junipero Serra, O.F.M.
After confiscation and sale, the mission was returned to the church by President Lincoln in 1862, but because of its isolation it had crumbled fast. The shell of the church remained, and in the early 1900s a new roof was provided and a few years later a fund of $50,000 was given by the Hearst Mission Restoration Fund. The cloisters were rebuilt by the Franciscans Fathers. It is now used as a training school for candidates to the Franciscan Brotherhood of the Province of Santa Barbara. Harry Downie of Carmel was in charge of the restoration work and the decorations within the church as he has been at both Carmel and San Juan missions. Father Gregory is the priest in charge.
| | Former US Route 101- Rand McNally Map | | Soledad Mission ruins with Vic Mossop's shadow | | Toothacker Stage Station, Jolon | | San Antonio Mission, looking Eastward | | |
Robert Louis Stevenson Club Meeting
On March 29, Monterey History & Art was “on the road,” all the way to Terry Trotter’s Gallery/Museum in Pacific Grove. Terry hosted a meeting of the local Robert Louis Stevenson Club. As part of the meeting, the RLS Club had requested a presentation about some aspect of Jo Mora’s career. Terry and MHAA board member Scott Gale spoke about possible presentations, and Gale gave a PowerPoint presentation about Mora’s cartes (maps) – an abbreviated version of the presentation Gale gave at the Jo Mora Gathering last October. An interesting factoid: The Stevenson House or Stevenson himself appear in all three of the cartes that Mora did of our region: Monterey Peninsula (1926), Seventeen Mile Drive (1935), and Carmel-by-the-Sea (1942). The audience of about 30 was delighted, with many great questions during the Q&A session and later. Terry says we made a bit of history – this was the first time a projected presentation has been given in his space.
At the end of the Q&A, the meeting pivoted into a second MHAA-related item. Historian Laura Bride Powers was the driving force behind MHAA’s formation back in 1931. Powers published three books during her life and was working on a fourth book at the time of her death in 1947. The fourth book was to be about Robert Louis Stevenson. A few decades after Powers’ death, her daughter Gwendolyn wrote about the Stevenson draft, stating it was about two-thirds complete and that it contained new information about Stevenson. Many years ago, MHAA was gifted the draft and many associated notes for the Stevenson book. Gale spoke about Laura Bride Powers for a few minutes, and then presented a copy of Powers’ Stevenson material, scanned and collated by Gary Spradlin, to RLS Club President Monica Hudson. Terry Trotter produced a large vintage pillow with a stork on it, upon which the documents were placed and then ceremonially transferred over. The RLS Club was thrilled to receive this material – as Hudson quipped, “This will give us a new juicy bone to gnaw on.”
| | Presenting a copy of the Powers' Stevenson Material, scanned and collated by Gary Spradlin, to the RLS Club President Monica Hudson | | |
Laura Bride Powers
One of Monterey History and Art Association's Founding Members
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Reflections
about
LAURA BRIDE POWERS
by
Her Daughter
Gwendolyn Powers Applegarth
1977
As the daughter of pioneers, Laura Bride Powers was imbued with a spirit of indomitable perseverance which was a heritage from her parents, Michael David Bride and Annie Roberts Bride. She was born in Virginia City, May 15, 1867 and from early childhood her individuality was marked. This was partly due to her intense blue eyes and head of curly red hair. She was an early companion to her father who used to take her on his knee after work in mine timbering to talk about the day's events in this exciting town. She was sensitive to beauty and color and one of her favorite recollections was of the many-colored rug in her home which she used to lie down on to admire. Weekends would often find her gazing at the green moss growing under a nearby sluice box, there being a dearth of trees and shrubbery in this barren area. Sometimes she would slip by her mother on Saturdays, and drop her best hat out the window to be picked up outside for a trip to town, displaying early the love of good style which characterized her life.
The enjoyable things of Virginia City ended tragically with the sudden death of Michael Bride from a heart attack at the age of 37. Laura was only ten when her young widowed mother moved back to San Francisco with her four children, blending their lives from this time on with the city Laura came to love and serve so well. At Lincoln Grammar School she stood well in her classes, showing an early interest in writing, but in the 8th grade a special opportunity came for her to enter a city-wide competition with an essay on "Intemperance and Tobacco". Her's was the prize winner for which she was awarded ten silver dollars at a large school gathering. Family members were so proud of their winner that an aunt took her on a trip to Carmel as a reward. On that Sunday the grave of Fray Junipero Serra was open for all to see that his body had not been removed to Spain as had been charged. He still reposed at the foot of the altar in Carmel Mission.
Laura was awe-struck by the sight of Serra's old leg bones being raised to view while the tying scarf fell away into dust and from that time on she was a devotee of the "Founder of California", writing and working for his recognition the rest of her life. Following Girls' High School, Laura continued her higher education at San Jose Teachers' College, which she finished in two years, receiving her diploma a few days after her 18th birthday. There followed a short period of teaching in a rural school near Hollister where some of the boys were older than herself. They terrified her by bringing guns to school to shoot rabbits out the windows. After teaching briefly in San Francisco, Laura was married to William Henry Powers who was associated with a printing firm, and their marriage continued for thirty years until his death at the age of 52. Two daughters were born to the couple, Gwendolyn and Marguerite, but after the severe illness of both children, Marguerite died of spinal meningitis.
After the death of her daughter, Laura felt impelled to do something with her writing, so she sought permission to work among the Bancroft archives which were housed on Valencia Street. Information gained here and her own investigations became The Missions of California, published in 1897 by the Doxie Press. In 1902, Historic Tales of the Old Missions, directed to children, was issued by the Walter N. Brunt Company. It was widely used in schools.
In 1903, Laura Bride, as she became familiarly known, decided to form an organization to further landmark preservation. She called together a group of leading San Franciscans to discuss the idea and the "California Historic Landmarks League" was the result. Joseph R. Knowland, chairman of the Landmarks Committee of the Native Sons of the Golden West, was named president of the new organization, while Laura Bride Powers carried on as secretary to handle correspondence and publicity. When William Randolph Hearst offered to open the Examiner columns for publicity and to act as trustee for funds raised, Laura Bride agreed to write all the publicity. $13,000.00 was raised with which Sonoma Mission, Fort Ross and the Viscaino-Serra Landing Place were purchased. A remaining $500.00 became the nucleus of funds which later secured the First Theatre in Monterey for the state. The Landmarks League also began the restoration of the roof of San Antonio Mission which was furthered by Joseph R. Knowland.
From the vantage point of a new home in Carmel, Laura exerted her influence to make Carmel Mission more of an active parish. In this effort she had the cooperation of the distinguished artist, E. Charlton Fortune and the backing of Bishop Philip G. Scher. Her church was very dear to her. As a member of the Third order of St. Francis and of the National Council of Catholic Women, she wrote and spoke frequently on matters of history and women's rights. It was during her residency in Carmel that she began to write Old Monterey, California's Adobe Capitol.
The idea of developing a museum of history in the Old Custom House had long intrigued Laura and now she began to lay plans for its accomplishment. With a small appropriation from Governor Young and backing from Mr. Knowland, she was able to bring about her dream. The Native Sons who had been meeting in the Custom House obligingly found another place to meet. Prominent old families of Spanish decent loaned their ancestral treasures for display while friends contributed money for cases to exhibit them. Finally, Laura moved into an improvised apartment at one end of the building so she could hose down the sidewalk and benches which tobacco-chewing fishermen made so unsightly. She was soon named custodian of this Number 1 State monument, over which she presided for ten years, eventually being named Supervisor of other State properties as well.
Seeing a need for an organization to promote an interest in Monterey's adobe landmarks, Laura Bride called together a group of prominent citizens to consider the proposition, and out of this beginning the Monterey History and Art Association was formed. Among the enthusiastic planners was Col. Roger S. Fitch, Commanding Officer of the Presidio, who was chosen to act as the first president, a position he filled for fifteen years. This fledgling group now numbers over one thousand members and becomes more involved in Monterey's welfare every year. Soon Laura arranged to celebrate the Founding of Monterey on June 3rd by a "Merienda" or Spanish picnic. She suggested to the Jacks sisters that their patio would be the ideal place for such a festivity and gave the name "Memory Garden" to the patio of the Pacific Building, where every year since then pageantry, music, toasts and beautiful table decorations have marked the Anniversary. A Laura Bride Powers Award is presented each year to someone who has contributed conspicuously during the year to the city's welfare. "La Favorita" who presides over the luncheon and who is always a young girl decendant of a pioneer Spanish family, cuts a large birthday cake with the shining sabre of the Presidio Comandante.
It is evident that Laura Bride was an idea person - as one suggestion after another was brought forth to stimulate action to preserve Monterey's historic tradition. The restoration of the First Theatre in California was accomplished under her supervision, and weekend melodramas which began when the theatre was re-opened have continued through the years to bring distinction to the city's entertainment.
When Laura reached the age of 70 it became necessary for her to resign from her Custom House position and she returned to San Francisco to live with her daughter, Mrs. George Adrian Applegarth, on Vallejo Street. A heart attack briefly slowed her down, but she soon turned her attention to San Francisco's own history needs, calling together a group to plan for a celebration of the city's birthday similar to Monterey's "Merienda". On June 29th, 1940, a buffet luncheon was held in the patio of the San Francisco Building on Treasure Island, during the Golden Gate International Exposition, with Miss Theresa Guilfoil acting as "La Favorita" as she joined the Commanding Officer of the Presidio in welcoming guests and in cutting the huge cake. This practice has continued ever since and is now celebrated at Mission Dolores and the Presidio from June 27-29th - a sold-out event each year. Mrs. George Applegarth and Mrs. J. Jerrold Applegarth have carried on with Dr. Alexander Leonard, and later with Dr. Albert Shumate, as co-chairmen to keep the Birthday celebration significant, colorful, and entertaining, with city dignitaries participating in appropriate remarks.
Laura Bride Powers' life activities were numerous and varied. She was a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines on matters of historic interest or women's affairs in which she took leadership. She was a prolific writer of "Letters to the Editor" in San Francisco, Monterey and Santa Barbara where she had an art studio for a time. In Santa Barbara she wrote many articles to raise money for the restoration of the Mission after the devastating Santa Barbara earthquake. At the time of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, Laura Bride was on the staff of the San Francisco Call Bulletin, doing Women's Page articles and art criticisms. On that April 18th, her "atmosphere" story of the opera Carmen appeared under the by-line of "Sally Sharp", written in the pre-dawn after Enrico Caruso's triumph the night before! Among San Francisco artists, Laura counted many good friends whose studios she frequented, especially Gottardo Piazzoni, Maynard Dixon (who designed her book and magazine covers), Charles Dickman, Xavier Martinez, Ralph Stackpole, Benjamino Buffano and others of that era. When Joseph Knowland bought the Oakland Tribune, he invited his good friend and co-worker Laura Bride Powers to take over Clubs, Society and Art on his new publication which he wanted to build up to a high standard. She remained on the Tribune staff for six years. As a worker in the Women's Suffrage campaign Laura wrote often for the official magazine, "Yellow Ribbon", and when women were granted the vote she took over the magazine as her own publication, calling it, "Western Woman". Unfortunately, it had a short and expensive life.
Laura Bride was a great wreath-placer. I like to recall the times the family made wreaths from our garden ivy to honor Junipero Serra or Robert Louis Stevenson by decorating their monuments in Golden Gate Park or Portsmouth Square. Laura would walk around to arouse people dozing on nearby benches, urging them to come and hear what she would have to say about these distinguished men – much to the family's amusement. At the time of her death, January 15, 1947, she had finished about two-thirds of a book on Robert Louis Stevenson which she felt contained much new material.
Laura Bride Powers was considered a handsome woman, tall, of good carriage and much style, her white skin and auburn hair making her a subject for artists' sketches. She was a fine conversationalist, quick witted, friendly, and full of Irish humor - a true Californian.
In January, 1977, a bronze plague honoring Laura Bride Powers and sponsored by the Monterey History and Art Association was placed on the wall of the Memory Garden where the "Merienda" is held each year. The legend reads:
In Memory of
Laura Bride Powers
Author and Civic Leader
Founder of the
Monterey History and Art Association
Old Custom House Museum and
Annual Merienda
Monterey History and Art Association
1976
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Steinbeck in Monterey
Now – December 14
Join the National Steinbeck Center for a deep dive into John Steinbeck and Monterey with the 2025 exhibition “Steinbeck in Monterey” is open at the Monterey History and Art Association Museum.
The City of Monterey was Steinbeck’s stomping ground through his childhood and into his thirties. Here, he had some of the foundational experiences of his life that appear in his writing, again and again. This exhibit explores the interplay between living and writing.
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Rental Opportunity
Approximately 1000 sq. ft. is available for rent in the Doud House at the corner of Scott Street and Van Buren Street. This space has been used as office space and as an art studio in the past. If interested in knowing more, please contact MHAA using the association’s email: mhaa.org1931@gmail.com. Thank you.
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MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL REMINDER
Our membership year is October 1 to September 30; please remember to renew your membership to continue receiving our newsletter, invitations to lectures and events, and FREE ADMISSION to Monterey History and Art at Stanton Center.
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Come visit our exhibits at Stanton Center.
Free admission for MHAA members!
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P.O. Box 1082
Monterey California, 93942
montereyhistory.org
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