16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY AUGUST 20-26, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com Historic preservationist Kent Seavey has spent six decades saving Monterey County’s past to preserve its future. By Pam Marino LIVING HISTORY Name a historic home, commercial building or district in Monterey County, and Kent Seavey, 86, probably knows its history, and likely worked to save it from disappearing or help amplify its story. After more than 60 years as a historic preservationist and museum interpretation consultant, Seavey is a walking database of the county’s historic places. Seavey estimates he’s written two-thirds of all historic surveys in Monterey County. He’s been a part of efforts at Cannery Row, Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn and Paraiso Springs near Soledad, among many others. He taught art and historic preservation part-time at Monterey Peninsula College for 20 years and lectured at numerous universities in Northern California, including UC Berkeley and Stanford. He’s written two books, one on the history of Carmel architecture and another on the history of Pacific Grove. In May, Seavey was awarded the 2026 President’s Award for Advocacy or Outreach from the California Preservation Foundation, for his lifetime of work throughout the state, including contributing to shaping public policy like the historic preservation portion of the California Environmental Quality Act. He’s written hundreds of resource surveys and preservation nominations for the National Register and served on various preservation boards and commissions. “His career stands as a remarkable example of how thoughtful outreach and dedicated advocacy can leave a lasting mark on the preservation movement,” a statement by CPF reads. “His work has not only preserved places, but has also deepened public understanding of why they matter.” Salvador Muñoz, a Salinas architect and historic preservationist who has collaborated with Seavey since the 1980s, nominated his friend for the CPF award. “I’m glad he received it because he deserved it,” Muñoz says. “He’s one of the foremost, if not the foremost, preservationists we have in our area. We’re very privileged to have him.” Even as an octogenarian, Seavey is still working as a consultant using his dining room table as his office inside his Pacific Grove Victorian home, a former barn from the 1890s that was later converted into a house in the 1920s. Inside he’s surrounded by artwork by his late wife Marie Brumund and one of his daughters, Heather Lynne Seavey Brumund (who also goes by CV.Brumund). Seavey also has two other daughters and three granddaughters. Sitting on his dining table/desk is a coffee mug he found in a thrift store that he likes to show off with a bit of a chuckle. It reads, “Damn, I make 86 look good.” Seavey never started out with a plan to become a museum curator and historic preservationist. He went into the military and through a series of what he calls “happy accidents” fell into what became his life’s work. Born on April 1, 1940 in Riverside, he remembers a life as the son of a single mother, growing up on the family’s 40-acre farm of walnut trees and alfalfa. “I really think my mother thought I was going to be a gas station attendant or something like that because I was never pushed educationally to do anything other than survive in context,” Kent Seavey was one member of a team that created a Cannery Row interpretive project, including a mural of Mack and the Boys from John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. DANIEL DREIFUSS
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