Courtyards & Cottages

Visit Carmel counts 41 passageways and courtyards downtown. They began in the 1920s, when Hugh Comstock’s fairytale houses and shops were built. (Visit Carmel)

The Court of the Golden Bough is called Carmel’s first shopping center. Edward Kuster’s Theatre of the Golden Bough opened on Ocean Avenue on 6 June 1924 and burned in May 1935; its facade survives, opening onto an arcade of shops, and the old box office is now the Cottage of Sweets. (Wikipedia)

Comstock built Hansel in 1924 on Torres Street, between Fifth and Sixth, as a place for his wife Mayotta’s Otsy Totsy rag dolls. Gretel followed in 1925, and the Tuck Box on Dolores Street, built in 1926, is often called the most photographed building in the village. (Visit Carmel)

Later courtyards add other styles: La Rambla Court, a Mediterranean-style building of 1929, and the Doud Arcade, finished in 1961 for local craft studios and small shops. (Visit Carmel)