Entry No. 3 — the Monterey file — filed under: literary landmark

Tor House & Hawk Tower

Poet Robinson Jeffers spent four years (1920–1924) single-handedly hauling granite boulders up from the beach below to build Hawk Tower stone by stone, then mortared in souvenirs from his travels — stones from Hawaii, the Temple of Peking, and the Great Wall of China are embedded right in the walls alongside the local Carmel Bay granite.

The move: Book the Friday/Saturday docent tour (departs on the hour, 10am–1pm, from the office next to the garage; $25/$10 student) and hunt the garden and tower walls together for the Great Wall of China stone, then read a Jeffers poem aloud on the ocean-view lawn where he wrote them.

• 📍 Carmel-by-the-Sea
• 💸 $
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Indoors

Where: 26304 Ocean View Avenue, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA 93923

Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: Official site · Atlas Obscura · Wikipedia

last checked: 2026-07-20