381 High Street
1876 Craftsman Style
According to the informal history compiled by John Dotson for the centennial celebration of the St. James/McGowan House in 2018, the McGowan House was named for the Reverend James Shannon McGowan, an Irishman from County Tyrone, Ireland. Rev. McGowan began preaching in Monterey in 1876 in the dance hall of Monterey’s Washington Hotel. He began a campaign to build St. James Mission Church, the first protestant church in Monterey, and this first church at 362 Pacific Street was completed in 1878 for a cost of $1200. According to Rev McGowan, Princess Louise, a daughter of Queen Victoria, worshipped at the church with her husband, the Marquis of Lorne, when they visited California.
Following the death of his first wife, Mary Catherine Peacock, Rev. James McGowan married Julia Moss in 1882. Dr. McGowan had received her medical degree in 1879 from the Woman’s Medical College of Chicago. She obtained her Monterey County Medical license in 1882. Dr. Julia Moss McGowan, MD, was also very active in the church and valuable in missionary work the couple did until 1900 when she and Rev. McGowan returned to Monterey and he became rector of St. James. Dr. McGowan was active in civic affairs in Monterey and was one of thirty-six women who founded the Monterey Civic Club in 1906. The club worked on projects to improve and beautify the city.
From 1927-1941 three Episcopal parishes were formed on the Peninsula, St. Mary’s by the Sea in Pacific Grove in 1888, St. John’s Chapel in 1891 at the Hotel Del Monte, and All Saint’s at Carmel by the Sea in 1910, and the St. James was inactive during this period. In 1941, it was reopened for worship for personnel of the Armed Forces, and became a service Men’s Center and a gathering for the Red Cross during WWII. By the mid-1950s, the church building on Pacific Street was too small. The current property at 381 High Street at the corner of Franklin was purchased as a vicarage and parish house. The church was designed by architect Joseph Wythe and built by Roy Hubbard, contractor. It was finished and dedicated in 1955. The name McGowan House was chosen for the parish hall in 1964 to honor the founder and builder of Old St. James. The original church was purchased for $1.00 by the Monterey History and Art Association and moved to its current site on Van Buren. It is now the Mayo Hayes O’Donnell library.
The hill on which the church was built, currently referred to as “Spaghetti Hill”, was the site of a Rumsien Ohlone village. The Rumsien Ohlone word for the hill was Hunukul (with an alternate spelling of Hunnukul). The Ohlone-Rumsien-Esselen people have been living in the Monterey area for several thousand years, according to Linda Yamane in “Introduction to the Native People of Monterey”, some of whom still live in the area today. The Ohlone subsisted as hunter-gatherers and harvesters. Along Monterey they constructed dome-shaped homes of woven or bundled mats of tule rushes, six to twenty feet in diameter. The heritage of the Rumsien/Ohlone/Esselen people was celebrated at the centennial in 2018 with a special ceremony.
Directions to the next house: Make sure you’re on W. Franklin Street, head down the hill to the Alvin Stahl House (946 Franklin Street), #25 on the map below.
