{"nrhp_refnum":"94001498","name":"Pacific Biological Laboratories","other_names":["Doc's Lab"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"800 Cannery Row","address_restricted":false,"city":"Monterey","county":"Monterey County","state":"CA","lat":36.616890660000024,"lon":-121.90080364399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-12-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Literature","Science"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small, unpainted, two-story wood-frame building at 800 Cannery Row in Monterey, California, built in 1937 for the Pacific Biological Laboratories, a biological specimen supply company. It was rebuilt on the site of an earlier laboratory destroyed by fire in 1936.","why_significant":"The lab was the business and gathering place of marine biologist Edward F. \"Doc\" Ricketts, whose pioneering studies of Pacific Coast intertidal life remain basic texts. It was also the close companion and creative base of novelist John Steinbeck, and the focal point of Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row. The nomination argues it is a rare surviving literary icon and merits national-level significance.","narrative":"Doc's Lab is a modest two-story wood-frame building near the northwest end of Cannery Row in Monterey. Built in 1937 after fire destroyed the previous laboratory, it housed the Pacific Biological Laboratories, a company supplying marine specimens to scientists. Its owner, Edward F. \"Doc\" Ricketts, made it a gathering place for artists, writers and thinkers, and his pioneering work on Pacific Coast intertidal life became a standard reference. His close friend John Steinbeck collaborated with him, became a stockholder in the company, and drew on the lab and its circle for Cannery Row and other works. The building has a concrete foundation, board-and-batten walls, a shiplap front and a flat roof, with specimen tanks and a reduction vat behind. Friends bought it in the mid-1950s and kept it as a social club with little change. It was listed for its ties to Ricketts and Steinbeck and its standing as a literary landmark.","period_of_significance":"1937-1945","architect_builder":"Onweiler (contractor)","architectural_style":"no style","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Used as a social club (men's social club since the mid-1950s); the exterior retains its historic appearance, with changes mainly at the rear porch and stairs, and the second-floor interior modified.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.684587-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/94001498.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94001498/8fc58303dd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94001498/8fc58303dd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Mark Miller","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_Biological_Laboratories,_exterior_2016.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mark Miller</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_Biological_Laboratories,_exterior_2016.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859948","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Biological_Laboratories","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7122315"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/monterey-county/pacific-biological-laboratories-94001498/"}