652 was originally the Ocean View Hotel (Cannery Row’s previous name was Ocean View Avenue), built in 1927 by Maen Chang Wu. On the right, at McAbee Beach, a Chinatown community stood until 1924. Walking along Cannery Row you’ll get tantalizing glimpses of the bay and hear the omnipresent barking of sea lions. He and Steinbeck had collaborated earlier on “Sea of Cortez” (Steinbeck had studied marine biology and gone on collecting trips with Ricketts between 19), but a rift developed between them over a screenplay Steinbeck was writing that “Doc” criticized in his usual outspoken fashion. Ricketts had never complained about being used in Steinbeck’s books, even though he was a sensitive and private man, but the three years that elapsed between the tremendous success of “Cannery Row” and his tragic accident must have been uncomfortable if not downright painful for him. A few feet away from the corner of the building, up the hill where Drake Avenue and Wave Street intersect, Ed Ricketts’ car collided with the evening Del Monte Express train on May 8, 1948, and he died three days later, just before his 50th birthday.
Nevertheless, taking “Cannery Row” in hand and setting off through glass doors whisked open by the Monterey Plaza’s white-liveried doorman, you shift almost at once into the reality of the row.
The luxurious hotel has dedicated its site to John Steinbeck, who would probably be both flattered and wryly amused to be remembered amid so much marbled elegance. The aquarium, now the nation’s largest, honors the memory of Ed Ricketts with its spectacular exhibits devoted exclusively to Monterey Bay marine life. But suddenly this raffish, snaggle-toothed street, still dotted with vacant lots where pampas grass blows in the fresh salt air, has been bracketed with $100 million worth of bookends, the wildly successful new Monterey Bay Aquarium on one end of the row and the just-opened, 290-room Monterey Plaza Hotel on the other.
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