Stevenson House, Spanish Colonial boarding house in Monterey, United States.

Stevenson House is a two-story adobe building on Houston Street with limestone mortar walls, an overhanging roof supported by brackets, and wood shingle covering. The structure displays Spanish Colonial characteristics with practical design features that have endured through the decades.

Don Rafael Gonzalez, customs administrator at the Port of Monterey, built the original adobe around 1836; some walls are chalk rock laid in mud mortar. From 1856 merchant Juan Girardin ran a general store downstairs and lived upstairs, later renting spare bedrooms as the French Hotel. Robert Louis Stevenson stayed there in autumn 1879, recovering his health while courting Fanny Osbourne, and wrote The Amateur Emigrant and essays on Thoreau and Yoshida Torajiro.

The building now operates as a museum displaying personal objects and photographs that show Stevenson's impact on California's literary world. You can walk through the rooms and see how the writer connected with the region's literary development.

The house is part of Monterey State Historic Park and can be visited during regular opening hours. Educational programs and guided tours are available to learn more about the building's history and literary connections.

The building originally operated as a French Hotel before becoming known as Stevenson House. This earlier function adds an unexpected layer to the property's story within the harbor town.