Description
The Monterey Peninsula Community Center was founded by Dr. Martin McAulay in 1925-26, with the support of the Monterey Kiwanis
Club and private donations. The Community Center was established to provide child care for working mothers and supply "supplementary
meals ... for underprivilileged children." The Community Center Auxiliary was organized in 1937 during the Depression. The
Center, started on Cannery Row, moved several times, including the Presidio of Monterey and Laine Street in New Monterey,
until the construction of a Community Center and Nursery School building on Archer Street in 1946. In its first few decades,
the Center was one of the few organizations to provide social and health services to the children of cannery workers and impoverished
families.