Pacific Biological Laboratories - Doc's Lab

Photo: MTB-Biker, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Monterey Cannery Row and Waterfront, a free self-guided tour.

This modest wooden building at 800 Cannery Row is one of the most important places on the street. Here marine biologist Ed Ricketts ran Pacific Biological Laboratories, selling preserved sea creatures and microscope slides to schools and museums. He was also a pioneer of ecology. His 1939 book Between Pacific Tides, written with Jack Calvin, organized tide pool life by habitat instead of by family tree, a new way of seeing how creatures live together.

Ricketts was John Steinbeck's closest friend. In 1940 they sailed to the Gulf of California to collect animals, which led to their book Sea of Cortez, and Steinbeck turned Ricketts into Doc of Cannery Row. When a fire swept in from the cannery next door in 1936, Steinbeck helped keep the business afloat.

Ricketts died in 1948 after a train hit his car at a crossing nearby. The city now owns the lab and offers occasional tours; check the city website.

Getting here: Walk on along Cannery Row past the hotels; the small weathered lab sits on the water side at number 800.

Did you know?: Across the street stands Wing Chong Market, opened in 1918 by Won Yee, which Steinbeck turned into Lee Chong's grocery in the novel.

Photo op: From the opposite sidewalk, frame the lab's wooden front with its steps, then turn around for Wing Chong Market.

More on Wikipedia: Pacific Biological Laboratories · Ed Ricketts · Between Pacific Tides · The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Pacific Biological Laboratories - Doc's Lab

Stops on this tour