Hansel and Gretel are two fairytale cottages in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and they exist because of a doll.

In 1924, Hugh Comstock built a tiny 244-square-foot house for his wife Mayotta's Otsy-Totsy rag dolls, spending around $100 on materials. He had no architectural training and no interest in straight lines: walls were finished by hand trowel with a mixture of pine needles and plaster, window frames were hand-whittled, and the stone chimney was deliberately laid in an uneven pattern. He called it Hansel.

A year later, Mayotta needed an office, so Comstock built Gretel for $400. These two cottages, almost accidental in their origins, set the architectural tone for an entire town.

VoiceMap's Fairy Tale Houses Walking Tour traces how Comstock's untrained eye shaped Carmel's streetscape, following his eleven surviving cottages through the Comstock Historic Hill District.