In this building, from September 1 to October 13, 1849, the convention assembled that drafted the constitution under which California was admitted to statehood on September 9, 1850. The forty-eight delegates met on the upper floor, which ran the length of the main building. Robert Semple was chairman and William G. Marcy secretary, and the stairway leading to the convention hall was in the rear of the building. Reverend Walter Colton, the first American alcalde in Monterey, erected the building, which bears his name, as a public hall and school house. Colton and Robert Semple established in Monterey on August 15th 1846 the first American newspaper in California.
