Seaside Blossoms

Seaside is the most racially and culturally diverse community on the Monterey Peninsula, a direct result of its history with the Army. Before 1950 it was a sprawling, unincorporated area known as “North Monterey” with an array of chicken farms, one major housing subdivision, some shacks left over from the Depression and some quickly built, affordable housing put up for soldiers’ families and civilian support staff during World War I and World War II. After President Harry Truman ordered the Army integrated in 1948, military officials decided to transfer all the black troops to Fort Ord because they were worried about racial violence elsewhere. The surge of black troops and their families into Fort Ord more than doubled the population of Seaside in the early ‘50s, and it incorporated as a city in 1954. When the base closed 40 years later and the soldiers left, many Latinos and Asians moved into the housing built for troops, helping change the racial and cultural mix of the city yet again.

John L. D. Roberts

John L.D. Roberts, a doctor who moved to this area from the East Coast in 1887, was a key figure in the building of Highway 1 from the Carmel area to San Simeon. (He also founded the city of Seaside .) He loved Big Sur, riding horseback often along the coast. With the proliferation of automobiles, he began dreaming of a beautiful highway. (The Ford Model T, in 1908, made the car a mass market item.) In 1919, thanks partly to Roberts' advocacy, the state budgeted for the road. Construction on this hazardous project began in 1922 and was completed 70 years ago, on June 27, 1937

Highway 1 along the rugged Big Sur coast has been hailed as the most scenic road in America since it opened 70 years ago in 1937. The highway, sought by hotel owners and would-be resort developers, made it possible to drive from the Monterey Peninsula to Hearst Castle in San Simeon year-round without worrying about winter washouts on the dirt roads inland. It was also an engineering and transportation triumph, routing automobiles along the sides of cliffs and over 41 creeks, rivers and coves that break up jagged shoreline. The highway took 18 years to build as workers, including many state convicts, blasted through mountains, filled in coves, constructed concrete bridges and hung pavement on steep dropoffs. It has required a lot of maintenance since, while it has carried millions of travelers through the breathtaking scenery.

(Photo: John Roberts from the city of Seaside archives.)