18. Elizabeth Hamilton's Cottage
222 Central Avenue (Corner of 2nd and Central)
(PRIVATE RESIDENCE--PLEASE RESPECT OCCUPANT'S PRIVACY)

     

     

 
 This tour is also available in a pdf version. Click here to open it.

If you need to download Adobe Reader to open the pdf version, click on the logo.
 		 
     


Google Map of Edith Hamilton's Cottage

(Frances Purrington house, 1907). From 1915 to 1918, this was the home of Steinbeck's maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Hamilton, a major character in East of Eden. She died here in 1918. In 1936, Steinbeck and his brother-in-law built the small workroom attached to the main house.

This gold statue (left) now stands outside the structure. It is fondly dubbed, The Colossus of Gold, and has inspired a long-running cartoon of the same name.

Google

 
When Steinbeck was writing East of Eden, he "warmed up" each day by writing a letter to his publisher at Viking Press, Pascal Covici. These notes were jotted in the same ledger book where Steinbeck wrote the first draft of the novel. These letters have been published as Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. Order from amazon.com
From Central Avenue, turn right on 3rd Street, go down to Ocean View Blvd., and turn right. Down a few blocks, on your left, is a group of large tile-roofed buildings.

This is. . . HOPKINS MARINE STATION