On Memorial Day, May 25, Monterey State Historic Park will open the Stevenson House (530 Houston St.) and Larkin House (464 Calle Principal) for the holiday. Stevenson House will be open 10am-1pm, while Larkin House will be open 1:30pm-4:30pm.

Admission to both houses will be free and staff will be on-site to answer questions and provide information about the buildings to visitors.

About Stevenson House

Built as a home for the Gonzalez family in 1840, the Stevenson House in downtown Monterey has a long and storied history. It is best known as the temporary residence of famed author Robert Louis Stevenson, who stayed there for a few months in 1879, but by the 1920s and 1930s, the historic adobe structure had been established as a popular gathering place for Monterey’s vibrant arts.

Today the building showcases many of Stevenson’s personal possessions along with a variety of antique furniture and art including four large paintings of Monterey’s workers completed for the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s.

About Larkin House

The first two story building constructed in California and the city’s finest example of Monterey Colonial architecture, the Larkin House was built for American businessman and the only U.S. Consul to Mexican California, Thomas Oliver Larkin.

Visitors can walk through the building’s first floor and take in its impressive collection of antique furniture and artworks that have been displayed inside since the 1920s when Larkin’s granddaughter Alice Toulmin lived in the structure with her husband, Harry Toulmin.