Presidio of Monterey , California The Presidio of Monterey , located in Monterey , California , is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era . Currently it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center ( DLI - FLC ) . Also this is the last and only Presidio in California to have an active military installation . History . Spanish fort . In 1768 , Visitador General José de Gálvez the Viceroyalty of New Spain received the following orders : " " Occupy and fortify San Diego and Monterey for God and the King of Spain " . " Two years later , a small expedition led by captain Gaspar de Portolá and Father Junípero Serra officially took possession for the upper Las Californias Province , what is now central California , via the establishment of El Presidio Real de San Carlos de Monterey ( the Royal Presidio of Saint Charles of Monterey ) and the nearby Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo . Portolá ' s actions were spurred by the Spanish fear that other nations – particularly Russia — had designs on its New World empire . Spain moved to occupy that portion of the North American west coast on the Pacific Ocean which it had only seen and claimed from maritime explorations previously , and neglected . The port of Monterey Bay , which had been visited and charted a century and a half before by the Spanish explorer , Sebastián Vizcaíno , was ripe for colonization and military fortification . Monterey became one of a series of " presidios " , or " royal forts , " built by Spain in what is now the western United States . In 1783 , it had a company of 56 men . Other California - based installations were founded in San Diego ( El Presidio Real de San Diego ) in 1769 , in San Francisco ( El Presidio Real de San Francisco ) in 1776 , and in Santa Barbara ( El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara ) in 1782 . On 20 November 1818 Argentine privateer Hipólito Bouchard , known thereafter as " California ' s only pirate " , raided the installation . Its population took refuge in the Presidio ' s Rancho del Rey San Pedro ( King ' s Farm ) , in the vicinity of Salinas . The fortunes of the Presidio at Monterey rose and fell with the times : it has been moved , abandoned and reactivated time and time again . The only surviving building from the original compound is the Royal Presidio Chapel . At least three times , it has been submerged by the tide of history , only to appear years later with a new face , a new master , and a new mission – first under the Spanish , then the Mexicans , and ultimately the Americans . United States fort . United States control of the area began in 1846 during the Mexican - American War when Commodore John D . Sloat , commander of the U . S . Navy ' s Pacific Squadron , landed unopposed a small force in Monterey and claimed the territory and the Presidio for the United States . He left a small garrison of Marines who moved the location of the fort and began improving defenses to better protect the town and the harbor . The Presidio was renamed Fort Mervine in honor of Captain William Mervine , who commanded one of the ships in Sloat ' s squadron . The original Presidio comprised a square of adobe buildings located in the vicinity of what is now downtown Monterey . The fort ' s original mission , the Royal Presidio Chapel , has remained in constant use since its founding in 1770 by Junípero Serra , who arrived with Portola ' s party . On a hill overlooking Monterey ' s harbor is an earthwork that serves as the only lingering connection between the original site and the present site of the Presidio . That earthwork was a cannon emplacement defending the harbor . The 1846 end of the Mexican - American War and the 1848 discovery of gold in California effectively put an end to any military presence in Monterey . In May 1848 , the news of the gold discovery reached Monterey and many military personnel deserted for the gold fields . In 1865 , in the closing months of the American Civil War , the old fort on the hill was returned to temporary life by the arrival of six officers and 156 enlisted men , but was abandoned again in 1866 . In 1902 , an Infantry Regiment arrived at Monterey with the mission to construct a post to house an infantry regiment and a squadron of cavalry . Troops moved into the new wooden barracks , officially named Ord Barracks , in June 1903 . It was named for former American Civil War general , Edward Ord . However , in order to perpetuate the name of the old Spanish military installation that Portolà had established 134 years earlier , the War Department redesignated the post as the Presidio of Monterey . Presidio of Monterey . A school of musketry was located at the Presidio from 1907 to 1913 , and a school for cooks and bakers from 1914 to 1917 . In 1917 , the Army purchased an additional 15 , 809 acres ( 64 km² ) across the bay as a maneuver area . This new acquisition eventually was designated as Camp Ord in 1939 and became Fort Ord in 1940 . Between 1919 and 1940 , the Presidio housed principally cavalry and field artillery units . However , the outbreak of World War II ended the days of horse cavalry , and those troops left Monterey . From 1946 onward , the Presidio itself was a sub - installation of the nearby Fort Ord . On 1 October 1994 , this situation changed when Fort Ord closed and the Presidio of Monterey became a separate installation again , with the continued military areas of Fort Ord becoming known as the Presidio Annex . Defense Language Institute . " Main article : " Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center In 1946 , the Military Intelligence Service Language School ( MISLS ) was moved to the Presidio of Monterey and was renamed the Army Language School ( ALS ) . In June 1963 , the Army Language School was renamed the Defense Language Institute ( DLI ) . In 1976 , the Defense Language Institute became the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center ( DLI - FLC ) , the Defense Department ' s primary center for foreign language instruction . The center constitutes the principal activity at the Presidio . The Presidio serves all branches of the Department of Defense as well as select other government agencies .