July 18, 2012

Monterey: Colton Hall + The Old Jail; things to do

exterior of Colton Hall in Monterey, California
1 South

Colton Hall  

570 Pacific St./Madison St., (831) 646-5648.  Daily 10-4.  Free. 

Built in 1849, this New England-style building was the original town hall and later a school.  Colton Hall was built of Carmel stone amid a sea of adobes and was the largest building west of the Rockies at the time.  California’s first constitution was drafted here in 1849, and today the second floor assembly hall is restored to appear as it did when the Constitution Convention met here.

Behind Colton Hall. 

was constructed of thick Monterey stone granite in 1854.  Featuring thick, narrow doorways and iron doors, it replaced the old adobe jail that, according to historian Dennis Copeland, “people could dig out of with rain and a spoon.”  No one ever escaped from this one. 





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