Old Whaling Station Adobe (Monterey)

The walk gives it away before you read a single placard. The path to the front door is paved with whale vertebrae — bones set into the ground as a casual reminder of what this building once was. Built in 1847 as a private residence, the adobe became headquarters for a whaling operation in the 1850s, when the nearby beach did the brutal work of processing the catch. The bones stayed. The building endured.