Art Lemos

Arthur “Art” Lemos was born in Mendocino on January 21, 1905, the eldest son of Antone B. and Emily (Brown) Lemos. His father had immigrated from the island of Flores in the Azores as a child and learned the barber trade in Boston. A talented linguist who spoke four languages, Antone worked as both a barber and an interpreter before coming to Mendocino in 1902. Soon after his arrival, he opened a barber shop in the building on the northeast corner of Lansing and Albion Streets that today houses the Mendocino Café. The building served not only as the family business but also as the Lemos home, where Antone and Emily raised their ten children. Rent on the building was just six to eight dollars a month, and Antone tried unsuccessfully for years to buy it from its owner, William H. Kelley.

Art grew up surrounded by the sounds and smells of his father’s barbershop. As he fondly recalled later in life, he was “in and out of the shop all the time, even when crawling on the floor.” At age twelve, his father announced that his apprenticeship would begin the next morning. Working under his father’s watchful eye, Art learned every aspect of the trade, from shaving and haircuts to the delicate art of curling hair with hot irons heated over live coals. By fifteen, he was a full-fledged barber, proud to be part of a craft where skill and reputation mattered more than age. He remembered his father as one of the best barbers on the coast, a man so skilled with a razor that customers barely felt the blade.

In 1923, after graduating from Mendocino High School, Art officially joined his father in the Lansing Street shop. Together they served Mendocino’s men, women, and children for over a decade. In 1934, Art moved south to San Mateo, where he opened his own business, the Civic Center Barber Shop. For thirty years, he ran a one-chair shop on Baldwin Avenue, becoming a fixture in the community. Known for his friendly manner and professionalism, he once joked that barbers probably knew more about human nature than anyone except doctors and lawyers. In 1935, Art married Mae Altman, a former Mendocino High School English teacher.

When Art retired in 1965, he and Mae returned to Mendocino, settling on the Little Lake Road property they had purchased in 1948 – “the most beautiful spot on earth,” as he called it. Though retired from barbering, Art remained deeply active in community life. He volunteered with the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department, where he had once served in his youth, and devoted countless hours to the Kelley House Museum. As a docent, board member, and oral historian, he shared memories that became an essential part of Mendocino’s recorded history.

Art Lemos passed away in 1987 at the age of eighty-two, leaving behind a legacy of family, community service, and love for his hometown. Those who knew him remembered not only his steady hands and warm humor but also his generosity of spirit.

Haunted Mendocino Walking Tour – Wear your sweater since you’re bound to get goosebumps listening to the ghostly tales of some of Mendocino’s more infamous residents. We’ll stop at the homes, hideouts, and hangouts of all the well-known specters, and learn a little of the town’s history along the way. Peer into the waves in search of a stallion and the rider who took it into the sea. Did you know not all hauntings are about scary visions or terrifying noises, but that some ghosts haunt with scents? What is that thing that goes bump in the night, followed by sounds of a taut rope swinging from the rafters? Why can guests hear the pitter patter of pets in a building where pets aren’t allowed? What is the area’s oldest known ghost story? And how many spooks haunt the streets of Mendocino? All questions will be answered on this hour and a half long tour through Haunted Mendocino. Join us… if you’re not too scared. $25.