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California Views:
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Robert Louis Stevenson in Monterey August 30th - December 22th, 1879
 Robert Louis Stevenson Born November 13, 1850 Edinburgh, Scotland photo circa 1880 Photo accession CV # 93-073-0017 |  Jules Simoneau (1820-1908) standing on Pearl Street in front of his old place At this time occupied by J. A. Urbanus grocery store and general merchandise. Stevenson was close friend of Simoneau, his wife, Dona Martina and maintained a correspondence with him for the rest of his life. Simoneau's restaurant and saloon the Lyon's Ale Depot was the hub of Bohemian, a meeting place of Nineteenth-Century Monterey. Note the street car track for the Monterey and Pacific Grove Street Railway Photo circa 1895 Photo accession CV # 98-004-0005 |  Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne (1840-1914) Photograph by Hollinger, London., circa 1898 Photo accession CV # 93-053-0004 |
 Lesse House was the two-story wood-frame building that was the first house he roomed in while in Monterey it was next to Larkin House on Calle Principal Street at Jefferson Street C.E. Watkins photo, circa 1881 Photo accession CV # 89-033-0128 |  Manuela Girardins French Hotel at the time Merchant's Row now 530 Houston Street, Monterey Stevenson stayed in one room in the Back view from the bridge over Hartnell Gulch. R.J. Arnold Collection Photo accession CV # 2000-027-0007 |
 The rear of the French Hotel showing the window of Stevenson's tiny upstairs room and stairway leading to the back yard. Real Photo Postcard No. 71199 by Banfeld & Hullinger Photo accession CV # 93-091-0013 |  Looking down Pearl Steet at intersection of Alvarado and Munras Street's Monterey Pioneer Bakery in the Cooper-Molera Adobe on right. The adobe in back of the Town well and windmill is Jules Simoneau'srestaurant and saloon the Lyon's Ale Depot. photo by C.W.J. Johnson circa 1890 Photo accession CV # 96-054-0002 |
| Stevenson arrived in Monterey by rail on the Monterey and Salinas Valley narrow gauge on August 30Th., 1879. To be with his lady love Fanny Osbourne, and Fanny's children Belle and Lloyd and her sister Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez that she was staying with at the two-story adobe dwelling of the Senorita Maria Ygnacia Bonifacio. In September, RLS went camping out in Carmel Valley. He camped on a 178 acre angora goat ranch on San Clemente Creek. The owners, Jonathan Wright and Ansom Smith, found him lost and wondering in the hills he was weak and sick. They took him in and nursed him back to health for almost a month. Luckily back in Monterey, Manuela Girardins son-in-law was Dr. John P.E. Heintz. Heintz and his wife Marie Clementine took Stevenson in and nursed him when back to good health, at the French Hotel it was operated by them for her father. In his short stay in Monterey he visited the keeper Allen Luce of the Point Pinos Lighthouse in Pacific Grove and the Chinese fishing village at Point Alones. He attended San Carlos Day Mass on November 5Th. 1879 at Mission San Carlos Borromeo (Carmel Mission). an account of this was published in the Monterey Californian on November 11Th. 1879. In November, after the summer campers returned home, Stevenson wandered into the deserted Methodist Retreat of Pacific Grove. I have never been in any place so dream like talking about Pacific Grove from his essay, The Old Pacific Capital: Robert Louis Stevenson's story of Monterey Some historian suggests the map and settinng of Treasure Island was modeled after Point Lobos, south of Carmel. While in Monterey, Stevenson started a forest fire. He was fascinated by the many fires started in the California forests and wondered whether it was the moss growing in the trees that first caught fire. The moss did catch fire and quickly spread up the tree. The Pavilion on the Links, which he wrote when he was in Monterey. In a letter to Scribner's Magazine, dated November 15, 1879, he states, "I lodge with Dr. Heintz; take my meals with Jules Simoneau" at the Lyon's Ale Depot. On 22 December 1879 Stevenson left Monterey and moved into lodgings at 608 Bush Street, San Francisco. He and Fanny were married on May 19, 1880 in San Francisco. In June of 1888, Stevenson chartered the yacht Casco and set sail with his family from San Francisco bound for the South Pacific. In 1890, they purchased four hundred acres in Upolu, one of the Samoan Islands. Where he died a short four years later on December 3rd, 1894 at the age of 44, at his Plantation known as Vailima. | |
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