Located on the Pacific Coast about 300 miles north of Los Angeles, Carmel-by-the-Sea, or just Carmel, is a town whose rustic sensibility has captured the imaginations of everyone from bohemian artists and writers to Betty White. The cooling coastal breezes coming off this deep section of the Pacific Ocean create a serene environment that is ripe for creativity. Inspired by the Cypress trees and craggy rocks that line the Monterey Bay coastline, Carmel’s pine-studded sand dunes have long attracted artists who began coming here in the early 1900s to paint its breathtakingly natural scenery.
Apart from the gorgeous landscape, one of the biggest draws to Carmel is its amazing architecture. Many of the homes appear as though they’ve sprung up from the scenery like something out of a fairytale, or the imaginations of their owners. The buildings of Carmel certainly emanate a fairytale-like quality. But Carmel provides more than just whimsy. Sited at one of the most scenic meetings of land and sea in the world, Carmel is a microcosm of California's architectural heritage.
Its Mission San Carlos Borromeo, first built in 1797 and founded by Father Juñipero Serra, a Franciscan priest, consisted of adobe-brick structures heavily influenced by the churches found in Serra’s native Mallorca. Its original designers weren’t trained architects; they merely replicated what they remembered of the European churches in their native Spain. It became a root building for California's first regional building style, the Mission Revival, and remains as one of the best examples of its kind (it's the only mission in the state with its original bell tower). It also offers a valuable glimpse into the history of California under Spanish colonial rule and later, Mexico.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the village was inundated with musicians, writers, painters and other artists turning to the establishing artist colony after the bay city was destroyed. The new residents were offered home lots – ten dollars down, little or no interest, and whatever they could pay on a monthly basis. Many embraced the Arts and Crafts aesthetic of handcrafted homes built from native materials, informally sited in the landscape. In the mid-1920s, Tudor Revival and Spanish Romantic Revival styles enhanced the storybook quality of the community. Individual expression continues as an ongoing aesthetic theme.
Other builders followed, like Hugh Comstock in 1924. Originally from Illinois, Comstock had no formal training as an architect, yet he designed and built his wife (a Otsy-Totsy rag doll maker) a fairytale cottage for her handmade dolls called “Hansel,” as a 244-square foot showroom and sales center for his wife’s dolls. Later he built a companion cottage on the same parcel and named it “Gretel.” Another favorite: The “Cottage of Sweets” is now a candy store in town on main street.
The 1940s and 1950s in Carmel were filled with one-of-a-kind construction, landscapes, and art pieces in typical fairytale-cottage-style Carmel architecture. Known for being dog-friendly, Cypress Inn was owned by legendary singer, actress and animal activist Doris Day. Doris’s deep devotion to animals helped put Cypress Inn on the map as the “pet friendliest” inn in the “pet friendliest” town in America. At the dog-friendly beach, you can watch dogs running, fetching and playing with each other and in the surf.