El Paseo Building is a two-story commercial building in downtown

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California Carmel-by-the-Sea (), often simply called Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated on October 31, 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is known for its natural scenery and ric ...

. The building is the best example of Spanish Eclectic commercial design in Carmel, inspired by the Spanish churches built in the 1880s. The building was designated in the city's ''Downtown Historic Conservation District Historic Property Survey'' on January 24, 2002. The building has been occupied by th
Little Napoli restaurant
since 1990.

History

The El Paseo Building was designed by the

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

architectural firm of Roger Blaine and David Olsen for Lewis C. Merrill, a Carmel businessman. El Paseo means the "passageway" in Spanish. It is at the corner of Dolores Street and Seventh Avenue. It is a two-story, reinforced concrete building with an open interior courtyard built in 1928. It has colorful hand-made imported tiles from Spain on the rise of the steps on the staircase and in under the windows and front doors. It has hand-made, hand-forged wrought iron balconies and window grilles, metal lanterns designed by the architects, and every shop has a fireplace. Red floor tile covers the passageway and outside courtyard. The courtyard is now the outdoor dining area for the Little Napoli restaurant. The building originally contained four retail stores and several offices at a cost of $25,000 (). Two early stores in the courtyard were Lotta Shipley's real estate office and the Moorish Rug Shop. The building was reviewed in the ''

Carmel Pine Cone The ''Carmel Pine Cone'' is a weekly newspaper serving the city of Carmel-by-the-Sea and the surrounding Monterey Peninsula, Carmel Valley and Big Sur region of Monterey County in central California. Despite not having a digital presence, a PDF of t ...

'' on April 27, 1928, saying: The formal opening of the building was on May 1, 1928.

Jo Mora Joseph Jacinto Mora (October 22, 1876 – October 10, 1947) was a Uruguayan-born American cowboy, photographer, artist, cartoonist, illustrator, painter, muralist, sculptor, and historian who lived with the Hopi and wrote about his experiences in ...

completed the "El Paseo" sculpture, in the courtyard of the building. The sculpture is an example of the artistic and cultural contributions of Mora to Carmel in the 1920s. It is a

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

sculpture of a

Californio Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...

man and a Señorita woman. On December 2, 1938, realtor

Byington Ford Lewis Byington Ford (November 1, 1890 – January 19, 1985) was a Monterey Peninsula real estate developer. He was a major force in developing Pebble Beach and Carmel Woods. Ford established the Carmel Valley Airport, the first airpark of its kin ...

presented to the Carmel planning group a proposal to purchase the El Paseo building for $35,000 (). The city’s offices would be on the ground floor, including the council chamber, and room for additional office space. On January 24, 2002, El Paseo was designated by the city as a historic downtown building. It is one of the best preserved buildings in Carmel and has remained unchanged architecturally from when it was built.

Blaine & Olsen

Roger Blaine and David Olsen were partners with Wilson J. Wythe in the Wythe, Blaine & Olsen architecture firm in

. They were primarily church and commercial designers. Wythe died in 1926. Blaine & Olsen traveled to Spain and became aware of the Spanish architecture. They designed a number of the best known Spanish Eclectic commercial buildings in Carmel, including La Ribera Hotel also known as the Cypress Inn, and the Kocher Building, known as La Giralda. All of the Spanish Eclectic-style buildings were constructed from 1927 to 1929.

Blaine & Olsen works

* Kocher Building (1927) * El Paseo Building (1928) * La Ribera Hotel (1929) * Draper Leidig Building (1929) The firm Blaine & Olsen continued the partnership with a focus on Spanish Eclectic design in Oakland, Santa Barbara, and Carmel. The partnership lasted until the

Great Depression in the United States In the United States, the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and then spread worldwide. The nadir came in 1931–1933, and recovery came in 1940. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high un ...

Gallery

File:Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey, California LCCN2013630701.tif, El Paseo staircase File:"El Paseo" Jo Mora Sculpture.jpg, "El Paseo" Jo Mora Sculpture File:Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey, California LCCN2013630534.tif, El Paseo tile fountain in staircase wall File:Stenciling of the name on El Paseo Building.jpg, Stenciling of name on El Paseo Building

References

External links

Downtown Conservation District Historic Property Survey

In Public Places, the Sculpture and Architectural Adornment Work of Jo Mora
{{DEFAULTSORT:El Paseo Building 1928 establishments in California Carmel-by-the-Sea, California Buildings and structures in Monterey County, California Defunct architecture firms based in California Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in California