St. John’s Chapel Del Monte

The propitious founding of St. John's Chapel Del Monte in Monterey, California, came closely on the heels of the 1880 founding of the esteemed Hotel Del Monte, the state's first destination resort. The elegant spa and grounds established the Monterey Peninsula as a world-class tourist mecca. The hotel itself, financed by the "Big Four" of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, was operated by the Pacific Improvement Company. It was co-founder Charles Crocker who took the most interest in developing the enterprise. Many of the hotel guests were from San Francisco, and parishioners of the city's St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church. When guests expressed the desire to have a chapel on the hotel grounds, Crocker responded by donating a plot of land for the purpose. He and his family supported the formation of St. John's Chapel Del Monte from its start. By 1891, a encouraged by Crocker's daughter Harriet Crocker Alexander and her sister-in law, Emma Rutherford Alexander, hotel guests and Monterey residents came together to fund and establish the Chapel of Ease, named for St. John the Evangelist after its San Francisco mother church. The chapel was patronized by wealthy hotel guests and dignitaries. Among the four U.S. Presidents who stayed at the Hotel Del Monte, President Theodore Roosevelt attended services at St. John's Chapel on May 10, 1903. In later years, the chapel welcomed other famous visitors, including Hollywood actress Joan Fontaine, who married actor Brian Aherne at the chapel on August 20, 1939 and actress Brooke Shields, who married tennis pro Andre Agassi at St. John's on April 19, 1997. Having weathered the Great Depression, two world wars, the transition of the Hotel Del Monte into the Naval Postgraduate School and the closing of nearby Fort Ord along with its large military presence, St. John's Chapel Del Monte has nonetheless survived. It continues today with a healthy local attendance and large public outreach, serving as a meeting place for recovery groups and shelter for a local homeless women's group. St. John's Chapel Del Monte was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.