Pebble Beach History

Pebble Beach, California – the history….
​The name Pebble Beach was originally given to a rocky cove, a small part of the Rancho Pescadero Mexican land grant awarded to Fabián Barreto in 1836. The grant extended along the Pacific coast from Rancho Punta de Pinos(Point Pinos near Pacific Grove) and Seal Rock south to Carmel-by-the-sea and Pebble Beach. Barreto died and the land went through several owners. 

In the 1850s, Chinese immigrants formed fishing settlements along Carmel Bay including one at Stillwater Cove, next to Pebble Beach. In 1860, David Jack bought the Mexican land grant, then sold it in 1880 to the Pacific Improvement Company (PIC), a consortium of The Big Four railroad barons (Leland Stanford, Collis Potter Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker). The Big Four built the Central Pacific Railroad (CPR), the western portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States.

By 1892, the PIC laid out a scenic road that they called the 17-Mile Drive, meandering along the beaches and forested areas between Monterey and Carmel. The drive was offered as a pleasure excursion to guests of the PIC-owned Hotel Del Monte, and it was intended to attract wealthy buyers of large and scenic residential plots on PIC land. In the 1900s, the automobile began replacing horses on 17-Mile Drive, and by 1907 there were only automobiles.

In 1908, architect Lewis Hobart was hired by PIC to design the Pebble Beach Lodge, a rustic log-cabin-style one-story inn completed by 1909. The rambling lodge was positioned halfway along 17-Mile Drive, overlooking Pebble Beach, built as the community center for the wealthy residents of the Del Monte Forest, and was popular as a rest stop for 17-Mile Drive motorists. Samuel Finley Brown Morse, a distant cousin to Samuel F. B. Morse known as the inventor of Morse Code, was hired in the 1910s to manage the PIC. 

In 1916, Morse convinced the PIC to create a golf course at the edge of Pebble Beach and Stillwater Cove. The lodge burned down in December 1917 while the course was being completed, and a completely different structure replaced it: the Del Monte Lodge. The golf course and the new lodge held a grand opening on February 22, 1919. A few days after this, Morse formed the Del Monte Properties Company and acquired the extensive holdings of the PIC, which included 18,000 acres of land in the Monterey Peninsula, all of Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach areas, Del Monte Forest, Del Monte Rancho, Hotel Del Monte, Pebble Beach Lodge and Monterey Water Company. Fifty years later, he had developed much of the area and under his ownership he ensured that easements would preserve hundreds of acres of coastline and forest along 17-Mile Drive for generations. Prior to his death on May 10, 1969, Samuel F. B. Morse appointed his son, John Morse president of the company. In 1977, the Del Monte Properties Company was reincorporated as the Pebble Beach Corporation and The Del Monte Lodge was renamed the Lodge at Pebble Beach.

In 1979, Twentieth Century-Fox used its profits from its film Star Wars to buy Pebble Beach Corporation. During their ownership, The Inn and Links at Spanish Bay were completed. In 1990, Pebble Beach Company to the Japanese businessman, Minoru Isutani, who made it a subsidiary of the Japanese resort company Taiheiyo Club Incorporation under a holding company called the Lone Cypress Company. Later, Isutani was investigated by the FBI in the early 1990s for money laundering. ​

In 1999, Arnold Palmer, Richard Ferris, Peter Ueberroth and Clint Eastwood—along with William Perocchi and GE Pension, bought Pebble Beach Company and established a limited partnership with the plan to never again sell the company to another ownership group. Under their ownership, the company has produced a profit ever since they purchased it. Today, Pebble Beach Company employs more than 1,600 employees. The Pebble Beach Golf Links, The Inn at Spanish Bay, The Lodge at Pebble Beach and four of the eight golf courses inside the Pebble Beach community are among the local assets owned by the Pebble Beach Company. 

Pebble Beach, California – Today – 2019 US Open 
​Today, both Pebble Beach and 17-mile drive are world-famous, attracting millions of visitors per year. The Monterey Peninsula as a whole brings in 4.6 million visitors a year.   International visitors have nearly doubled from 7.5 percent in 2015 to 13.8 percent in 2017. Germany, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and France are the top five countries of origin for visitors. Approximately 80 to 85 percent are US domestic visitors. Tourism is an important part of the Monterey Peninsula economy, employing approximately 25,000 people and generating $127 million in local tax revenue.