HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
An 1833 adobe where a fraud physician may have poisoned the Mexican governor — and where he died by his own hand in 1864.
500 Hartnell St, Monterey, CA 93940
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Dinner service with craft cocktails; see website for current menu and pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Two-story historic adobe; ground floor dining accessible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1833 · Monterey Colonial Adobe · Early California Medical Fraud · California First Newspaper Press Site
The adobe at 500 Hartnell Street was raised in 1833 as a single-room residence for Ambrose Tomlinson, a fur trapper working the central California coast. James Stokes arrived in Monterey the same year aboard a British vessel, deserting with a trunk of medical supplies that he apparently took from the ship's stores. He purchased the property from Tomlinson and opened a pharmacy on the ground floor, identifying himself to Mexican authorities as a physician.
Stokes's clientele quickly included the upper tier of Mexican California's government. Governor José Figueroa retained him as his personal doctor; Figueroa died in 1835. Whether Stokes's treatments contributed to that death has never been established — the governor's health had been failing before Stokes arrived — but the association attached a dark reputation to both man and building that never fully faded.
In 1844, Stokes expanded the structure substantially, adding seven rooms and a full second story to house his wife Josefa and their children. The adobe briefly housed the printing operation that produced California's first English-language newspaper in the late 1840s. After the American takeover it cycled through uses as a bakery, a pottery kiln, and a boarding house. In the twentieth century it became Gallatin's, a white-tablecloth restaurant that drew film industry figures during the 1950s and 1960s.
Stokes himself died in 1864. Contemporary accounts cite self-poisoning following years of alcoholism and financial decline. He was buried in Monterey. The building operating today as Stokes Adobe restaurant is the same structure he expanded — the street-facing adobe walls date to 1844.
Sources
The reported hauntings at the Stokes Adobe track closely with the building's most sensational occupant. Visitors describe seeing a male figure in period clothing near the staircase and on the second-floor balcony, and a woman assumed to be Josefa Stokes in the dining areas. Staff at the restaurant have described items moving and doors opening without apparent cause.
The adobe was included in the 2003 television program America's Most Haunted Places, which brought the property national attention and established it as a fixture on Monterey's paranormal tour circuit. US Ghost Adventures currently incorporates it into their walking tour route, framing the Stokes story around the physician-fraud narrative and the deaths attributed to his practice.
Reports also connect spirits to the Gallatin's-era staff from the mid-twentieth century. The building's long commercial history has produced a layered folk record with multiple generations of accounts, though the Stokes-period figures are consistently the most described.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
US Ghost Adventures includes the Stokes Adobe as a feature stop on their Monterey ghost walking tour, covering James Stokes's fraudulent medical career and the reported apparitions that remain in the building.
Dine inside the 1833 two-story adobe that served as a pharmacy, government print shop, and upscale supper club across nearly two centuries of Monterey history. Reservations available via the restaurant website.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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