Tor House is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

The number of National Historic Landmarks in Monterey County just increased.

Tor House and Hawk Tower, built by one of the most eminent poet of the region, Robinson Jeffers, is now the seventh NHL in the county. The six others are: Royal Presidio Chapel, Larkin House and Old Custom House in Monterey, Monterey Old Town Historic District, Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove and Carmel Mission in Carmel.

On Monday, Dec. 16, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland designated Tor House a National Historic Landmark, in addition to being a site of events, poetry readings and artist residencies.

“We are looking forward to a public celebration of this significant recognition, perhaps at the [Tor’s] Garden Party, on Sunday, May 4, 2025 with the unveiling of the NHL plaque acknowledging our NHL status,” wrote Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation’s President Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts.

He hopes the recognition will bring more attention to this little gem hidden among the trees by Carmel Beach. Many Americans travel just to discover more NHL destinations. That includes international tourists who perhaps never heard about Robinson Jeffers' poems. 

It has been a long, challenging road with many in the Tor House community helping. In 2015, then-foundation president Vince Huth and then-administrative assistant Erin Carey began the nomination process. Trustee Gere diZerega took the lead in pursuing the nomination, enlisting the aid of trustees Jim Karman and Ruchowitz-Roberts who were responsible for preparing the text.

"I didn't want to participate in the project (the application process) conceived by my predecessor who wrote the 140-pages proposal," Ruchowitz-Roberts says. "But I was pulled in anyway."

There was a consultant architect hired to help with terminology, as well as a written component that explains the integrity of this place and this poet, in work and in life.