The Finch-Fleischer House is one of the few remaining intact examples of early American building styles in Monterey, a town noted for its collection of early Spanish/Mexican adobe structures. Built by the Finch family in 1870, the house embodies a Classical Revival mode with eclectic features common to the period of construction. As early settlers, the Finch family was important both in ranching in the nearby Carmel Valley and in Monterey commercial ventures.

James William Finch and his brother Charles arrived in California via the Overland Trail in 1854. The brothers established a stock-ranch in the Jamesburg section of Carmel Valley. James Finch was a stovemaker and iron worker by trade in addition to being a stock-raiser. During the Civil War, Finch supplied horses to the Federal Army. In 1870, the Finch brothers built this house for their mother. After her death in 1881, James Finch and his wife Ellen moved into the house, adding a northern wing and rear kitchen. Alma, one of two children of that union, lived in the house for many years with her son and husband Charles Fleischer. The Finch-Fleischer families were active in local social activities including amateur participation in melodramas at Monterey's First Theatre. On various occasions when the family returned to live at the Jamesburg ranch the house was sublet; one notable renter was artist Charles Rollo Peters, well known for his nocturnal painting of Monterey adobes.

Excerpted from the NRHP nomination.