Russell Brook Dam, a modest sixteen-foot structure on a tributary of Big River, was completed in 1907 by Alfred R. Johnston, a well-known logging boss and contractor. Built partly as a frame dam using logs, it stood one mile above the main river on Russell Brook. Smaller than many of the other dams on Big River, it was also the last dam Johnston built before his [...]
Come see the Blind Pig at the Kelley House until September 29th. In the early 20th century, few characters in Mendocino were as notorious or as colorful as Michael Dennis “Big Mike” Nolan. An Irish immigrant with a booming voice and a larger-than-life presence, Nolan was both a hard-working drayman and an infamous bootlegger who thumbed his nose at local prohibition laws long before [...]
The first Mendocino Grammar School was a landmark in the town’s history, serving local children for more than four decades. Before it was built, students attended classes in a small schoolhouse near the corner of Ukiah and Lansing Streets. By the early 1880s, the community had outgrown that building, and in 1884, the school board purchased more than four acres of land at the northeast corner [...]
This photograph captures three of the four houses on Mendocino’s “Bankers’ Row,” a block of elegant homes on Little Lake Street once associated with the town’s business and professional leaders. From left to right, the pictured homes are the C. O. Packard House, the Maxwell-Jarvis House, and the Albert Brown House. The Blair House, the fourth home on the block, stands just beyond the right edge [...]
As students head back to school, it’s a good time to remember the roots of public education in Mendocino. In the 1980s, the Mendocino Genealogy Society sponsored a project titled What Became of the Little Red Schoolhouse? to document the many schools (over 200!) that existed in Mendocino County at one time or another. The following excerpt details the founding of Mendocino’s first school in the [...]
The Denslow-Maxwell House on the northwest corner of Kasten and Calpella Streets is one of Mendocino’s most distinctive historic residences, with a past that reflects the town’s entrepreneurial spirit. In 1887, Charles W. Denslow, bookkeeper for the Mendocino Lumber Company, purchased the property and moved an existing small house to a nearby lot. He then hired master carpenter J. D. Johnson to build this handsome new [...]
In August 1952, Mendocino celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding with a weekend of festivities that drew an estimated 5,000 attendees. The event showcased the town’s history and community spirit with a parade, barbecue, antique show, and dancing. The celebration began Saturday at Kellieowen Hall, on the southwest corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets, where local residents displayed a remarkable collection of antiques and heirlooms. [...]
Yes, Mendocino has been used as a backdrop for movies and television series, but new car commercials, too? You bet, if you go back in time starting in 1956. A headline in a September 1956 San Francisco Examiner said, “Mendocino Log: Cruising in a Jaguar.” Equipped with a 2.4-liter engine in a sedan, this car headed from San Francisco to the Heritage House with a driving [...]
Public education began in Mendocino in 1862 with a small primary school located near the corner of Ukiah and Lansing streets, followed in 1885 by a larger Grammar School on the corner of School and Pine streets. Although some limited “advanced” classes were offered there, students seeking a full high school education had to leave town, often living with relatives in San Francisco. That changed in [...]
Ed Boyle, Woods Superintendent for the Mendocino Lumber Company, 1928. Kelley House Photographs. Thomas Edward “Ed” Boyle was one of the most respected figures in the Mendocino Coast’s lumbering history, a man whose life was shaped by the redwoods and who, in turn, helped shape an entire era of logging on Big River. Born in Albion on December 4, 1866, Ed was the second [...]