Soledad MORTGAGE LENDER

The original community of Soledad was established as a Spanish mission on October 9, 1791, by Fermín Lasuén, and founded under the rule of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Virreinato de Nueva España) 1535 to 1821.

The town of Soledad was founded by Catalina Munras, at the wishes of her dying husband Don Esteban Munras. Don Esteban had arrived in the area in 1820 and was granted Rancho San Vicente from Mexico after it gained its independence from Spain. Following her late husband’s dream and advice, she selected “poor land, no good for tilling, a town to help all rancheros around.  One lot for a school, one for a church, and one for a cemetario where God would give rest to his workers.” The decision to found the town had some judicious timing, since the Southern Pacific Railroad was stretching down the Salinas Valley by 1872. She granted a right-of-way to Southern Pacific Railroad which was the end of its line in the Salinas Valley for 13 years, providing shipping services for grains and products from the area.

The Township of Soledad was created by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on February 6, 1876, upgrading the settlement to a town. The Soledad post office opened in 1869. The community of Soledad in 1874 had a few buildings and shops. The two main streets were named Front and Main.

San Vicente School was built in 1913 forming the Soledad School District. The city, a general law city, incorporated in March 1921 with a City Council/City Manager form of government. The city’s name comes from the mission Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad.

The Los Coches Adobe was given to Maria Josefa Soberanes. She married William Richardson and they built the adobe in 1843. It was a working rancho until 1846 when the United States waged war with Mexico to gain control of California. Capt. John C. Fremont and his troops camped there after the Battle of Natividad. Poor guests, they ate the Richardsons out of house and home and never paid for it. In the mid-1850s, it was a stop on the San Juan Bautista-Soledad stage line and then became a popular inn on the Butterfield Overland Stage route running between San Francisco and Los Angeles. When the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks finally reached Soledad in 1872, the area became a popular stopover for travelers and a place to stay before getting on a Coast Line Stage Company coach for the trip south to Los Angeles.

The demise of the Rancho was caused by the drought that took hold of the valley in the early 1860s. Its severity was devastating to the ranchero lifestyle and it systematically brought that period of history to a close in the Valley. Land was sold at bargain prices to entrepreneurial Americans who changed the landscape from pastoral to agricultural. David Jacks, one of the Valley’s early enterprising residents purchased Rancho Los Coches in 1865.

Margaret Jacks, daughter of David Jacks, donated the adobe and 10 acres of land to the State of California and the granddaughter of William B. Richardson, Adeline Richardson O’Brien, donated a marker identifying her ancestral home.

In 1898 Fort Romie was founded a few miles north of the mission and west of the city. It was one of three Salvation Army Colonies established in America. The name honors Charles Romie, a landowner who sold the land to the Salvation Army. They included Fort Amity in Colorado, Fort Herrick in Ohio and the Fort Romie Colony on Romie’s Ranchita land. The Salvation Army goal was to take poor families from the cities and bring them back to nature so that their lives would be improved. The Salvation Army sought people who had some knowledge of farming. Each family had 10 acres. A family with two children had a two roome house, those with three or more children had a four-room house. Everything was furnished to the settlers without charge: seed, sheds, tools equipment were provided by the Salvation Army for all to use. In return they contracted to make yearly payments of $100 for 10 years, after which they would own the land.

Located just west of Soledad is the Paraiso Hot Springs. It was used by the Native Americans and the Mission Padres. In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was a popular resort for people taking the railroad from San Francisco to Soledad and then by stage to Paraiso Springs. In 1905, the manager billed the resort as, “Hot soda and sulfur plunge and tub baths with first class masseurs in attendance. Charming climate, grand scenery and flower sin profusion. Stage meets afternoon train at Soledad and carries you over famous Salinas Valley good roads, a distance of only eight miles.”

Soledad is used as a backdrop in John Steinbeck’s 1937 novel Of Mice and Men, a novella about the unusual friendship of two men who find work on a farm in the Salinas Valley. Soledad was chosen as the setting because soledad is Spanish for ‘solitude’, a recurring motif in the story.

Soledad has been rocked by the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

The Soledad Prison was three miles (5 km) north of the city until annexed in 1992. It was built in 1946.

In May 1996 the Salinas Valley State Prison was opened at a cost of $236 million.

Soledad’s slogan was “It’s happening in Soledad” was used until 2013 when “Gateway to the Pinnacles” was introduced.