Stop by the Kelley House Museum at 45007 Albion Street in Mendocino! Visit our gardens, and explore the inside of one of the first homes built in Mendocino. The museum is open Thursday-Monday, 11am - 3pm. Kelley House Museum, July 2024. (Photographer: Robert Dominy) Our current exhibit is “Paint the Town: The Art of Kevin Milligan.” Kevin Milligan’s gorgeous oil paintings capture the breathtaking [...]
July 21, 1926 - A summer sale began at the Mendocino Hat Shop. The store advertised in the Mendocino Beacon, offering greatly reduced prices on their current inventory. Rose Cole opened the Mendocino Hat Shop, which featured straw and trimmed hats for ladies and children, in 1924. This business was located in the eastern part of a now-demolished building on the south side of Main Street. [...]
Caspar Mill Pond and Log Chute. Men on rafts can be seen moving the logs away from the bottom of the chute to clear the landing area and sorting the logs into pockets in the pond according to species and size. Logs were brought from the woods to the mill via railroad. The log chute connected the terminus of the railroad at the top of the [...]
Alice Earl Wilder, 95, at the Ford Family reunion in 1984. Alice Earl Wilder was the granddaughter of Jerome Bursley Ford, one of the founders of Mendocino. Her letters to Dorothy Bear and Beth Stebbins in 1973 contain reminiscences of her summers spent in Mendocino as a child and later as an adult. The letter below was found in the Kelley House archives by Mary [...]
Morning sunlight warms the northeast corner of the historic Kelley House in these two photographs, taken 115 years apart. Located at 45007 Albion Street, the house was one of the earliest built in Mendocino on a prime spot overlooking the ocean. Eliza Kelley in her Garden, 1909. (Gift of Margaret Kelley Campbell) In the black and white photograph from 1909, Eliza Kelley, then 84 [...]
Elevated View of Kasten Street in Mendocino, 1908. (Gift of Cora Hervilla) This black and white postcard, with the title "Kasten Street, Mendocino, Cal.,” shows an elevated view looking north-northeast over several historical buildings, many of which are still standing. The building with the false front in the foreground on the far left was Granskog's Eagle Saloon. Built in 1907, the saloon was forced to close [...]
June 9, 1940 - California Governor Culbert Olson and Secretary of State Paul Peek spoke at the dedication ceremony for the new bridge over Russian Gulch. Following the speeches by Governor Olson and Secretary Peek, the Governor’s party had the honor of being the first to drive across the newly constructed bridge. Other motorists waited three more weeks for construction to be completed. The bridge opened [...]
John Figaro with his parents, Manuel and Mary, c. 1890. (Eleanor Sverko Collection) June 3, 1919 - John Figaro died in a New York hospital at the age of 32 after a short illness. At the time of his death, he was returning from his military service overseas. Born in Mendocino in 1887, John was the oldest child of Manuel and Mary (Maderia-Saudades) Figaro. [...]
Mendocino Masonic Hall, c. 1960. These two photographs, taken about 65 years apart, show the Masonic Hall located on the northwest corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets in Mendocino. This historic structure, one of the oldest buildings still standing in town, was surveyed in May 1976 for the State Office of Historic Preservation by Kelley House Museum co-founder Beth Stebbins. The Mendocino Masonic Lodge, [...]
Dollard Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, standing on Main Street in Mendocino on Decoration Day, 1883. (Gift of Emery Escola) The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), founded in Springfield, Illinois in 1866, was a fraternal organization of veterans who served in the Union armed forces during the Civil War. The first GAR Commander-in-Chief, General John A. Logan, called for [...]