Presidio of Monterey

The military has played a role in the history of the Monterey Peninsula since 1770 when a small expedition led by captain Gaspar de Portolà, officially took possession for Spain of what is now central California. In compliance with his orders "to erect a fort to occupy and defend the port (of Monterey) from the atrocities of the Russians, who were about to invade," his men immediately began construction of El Presidio Reál de San Carlos de Monterey (the Royal Presidio of Saint Charles of Monterey).

Portolà's actions were spurred by the Spanish fear that other nations — particularly Russia — had designs on her New World empire. Spain moved to occupy that portion of the American west coast which she had previously neglected. The port of Monterey, which had been visited and charted a century and a half before by the Spanish explorer, Sebastián Vizcaíno, was ripe for colonization and military fortification.

Monterey became one of a series of presidios, or royal forts, built by Spain in what is now the western United States. Other California–based installations were founded in San Diego (El Presidio Reál de San Diego), in 1769; San Francisco (El Presidio Reál de San Francisco ), in 1776; and in Santa Barbara (El Presidio Reál de Santa Bárbara), in 1782.

On November 20, 1818 French privateer Hipólito Bouchard raided the installation. He hired Sir Peter Corney to captain the Santa Rosa, whose crew had mutinied. Bouchard sailed to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) to find new crew members, after much of his crew died from scurvy. The fortunes of the Presidio at Monterey rose and fell with the times: it has been moved, abandoned and reactivated time and time again. The only surviving building from the original compound is the Royal Presidio Chapel. At least three times it has been submerged by the tide of history, only to appear years later with a new face, a new master, and a new mission — first under the Spanish, then the Mexicans, and ultimately the Americans.

American control of the area began in 1846 during the War with Mexico when Commodore John D. Sloat, commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron, landed unopposed a small force in Monterey and claimed the territory and the Presidio for the United States. He left a small garrison of Marines who moved the location of the fort and began improving defenses to better protect the town and the harbor. The Presidio was renamed Fort Mervine in honor of Captain William Mervine, who commanded one of the ships in Sloat's squadron.

The original Presidio comprised a square of adobe buildings located in the vicinity of what is now downtown Monterey. The fort's original mission, the Royal Presidio Chapel, has remained in constant use since its founding in 1770 by Junípero Serra, who arrived with Portola's party. On a hill overlooking Monterey's harbor is an earthwork that serves as the only lingering connection between the original site and the present site of the Presidio. That earthwork was a cannon implacement defending the harbor.

The end of the Mexican-American War and the discovery of gold in California effectively put an end to any military presence in Monterey. In May, 1848 the news of the gold discovery reached Monterey and many companies deserted for the gold fields. In 1865, in the closing months of the Civil War, the old fort on the hill was returned to temporary life by the arrival of six officers and 156 enlisted men, but was abandoned again in 1866.

In 1902, an Infantry Regiment arrived at Monterey with the mission to construct a post to house an infantry regiment and a squadron of cavalry. Troops moved into the new wooden barracks, officially named Ord Barracks, in June 1903. However, in order to perpetuate the name of the old Spanish military installation that Portolà had established 134 years earlier, the War Department redesignated the post as the Presidio of Monterey.

A school of musketry was located at the Presidio from 1904 to 1911, and a school for cooks and bakers from 1914 to 1917. In 1917, the Army purchased an additional 15,809 acres (64 km²) across the bay as a maneuver area. This new acquisition eventually was designated as Camp Ord in 1939 and became Fort Ord in 1940.

Between 1919 and 1940, the Presidio housed principally cavalry and field artillery units. However, the outbreak of World War II ended the days of horse cavalry, and the troops left Monterey.

From 1946 onward, the Presidio itself was a sub-installation of the nearby Fort Ord. On October 1, 1994 this situation changed when Fort Ord closed and the Presidio of Monterey became a separate installation again, with the continued military areas of Fort Ord becoming known as the Presidio Annex.