Our Mission

To Educate the community about the value of recognizing, preserving, securing, and displaying the Monterey area's historic assets for public benefit.

To Support activities which interpret and share the Monterey area's rich cultural heritage with residents and visitors.

To Encourage residents to be advocates for ideas, programs, and plans which contribute to the understanding of the Monterey area's cultural, ethnic, artistic, and architectural legacy.

NEW PRESERVATION CHALLENGE!

AMAP is proud to actively support the advocacy efforts of the Pebble Beach Equestrian Coalition to preserve the 100-year-old Equestrian Center in Del Monte Forest.

In March 2024, the Pebble Beach Company abruptly announced that they were going to close the center by June 30th.  Despite attempts to get them to change their direction, the Company applied for a demolition permit. This is currently on hold pending further historical review by Monterey County

The County and the Company had been relying on an incomplete and outdated 1996 report saying that the facility did not qualify as an historic district. AMAP commissioned a new historical assessment, which was completed in June 2024.  This comprehensive report, prepared by architectural historian Dana Supernowicz, confirms that the facility is historically significant and is eligible for both the California Register of Historic Resources and the National Register of Historic Places. AMAP has filed the report with the California Office of Historic Preservation and with Monterey County.More information at  Pebble Beach Equestrian Center Architectural Assessment Study.pdf and Pebble Beach Equestrian CenterSite Records.pdf

The Equestrian Center and trail network were vital parts of S.F.B. Morse’s vision for Pebble Beach. The Center has been in continuous operation since he established it in 1924 and is probably the oldest intact commercial building remaining in the Del Monte Forest.  Numerous owners, both residents and non-residents, have boarded their horses there. The facility was also used by the general public who come to hire horses and enjoy the 30 miles of equestrian trails throughout Pebble Beach.

The original stable quadrangle, built in 1924, is very intact and clearly exhibits its original character as an early equestrian facility. It is an excellent example of the rustic Ranch style and retains such original features as hand-wrought iron hardware.  Minor alterations over time have not affected its integrity.

Private equestrian activities, focused on the Center, have always been a significant element of the character and culture of Del Monte Forest. In addition, the updated assessment identified important activities that have taken place there, including the trials for the 1960 and 1968 Olympic and the 1963 Pan-American Games, as well as numerous horse shows and national and international competitions.    

The Pebble Beach Equestrian Coalition has gathered more than 2700 signatures on a petition to try to keep the Center open and are raising funds for legal representation. Read more on this effort at: https://gofund.me/ea902740

Pacific Grove resident and AMAP board member Dr, Raymond Neutra's book on his family's relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright is available on Amazon. Learn about the development of Neutra's mid-century "California Modern." 

What is the psychological process whereby one person inspires and influences another? In this richly illustrated book, Dr. Raymond Richard Neutra traces the forty-year relationship between his parents and the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The author's father, the pioneer modern architect Richard Neutra, immigrated to the United States in the early 1920's with the dual motivation of working for his idol Frank Lloyd Wright and for exploring the American industrial potential for economical and light weight housing, schools, medical facilities and other "architecture of social concern." He brought his young wife with him to work for Wright in the last part of 1924 and they maintained a correspondence with Wright over the next forty years until the great man's death.

Within nine years of his arrival in the United States Richard Neutra's writings on American building practices and technology and his 1927-29 steel framed "Lovell Health House" and plan for a prefabricated Ring Plan School won him a place in the 1932 MOMA "International Style" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Wright's early cordiality changed to vitriol when he characterized those projects as "Cheap and Thin." Although meant as an insult, the characterization revealed a recognition of the different direction that Richard Neutra's goals had given to the basic strategies that Wright had developed twenty years earlier: Neutra wanted to develop an economic and light way to deploy technology and nature for a happy and healthy life.

The book quotes from the many letters exchanged between Wright and the Neutra's and recounts family memories of visits between them. It then explores the substantial influence of Wright on Neutra and how Neutra adapted, adopted and added strategies and design features to gradually develop what was to become mid-century "California Modern."

Purchase on Amazon