These two images, taken 66 years apart, look west down Albion Street in Mendocino. Albion Street, 1957. Photo by Robert Duke. (Gift of Bette Duke) Albion Street, 2023. Photo by Robert Dominy. In the foreground on the right side of both photos is a unique apple shed designed and built in the 1860s by Erick Albertson, architect and builder of Mendocino’s Masonic [...]
Beth Stebbins and Dorothy Bear, with "Kelley" the cat, 1979. Photo by Ray Brooks. This article was originally published in the Mendocino Beacon on July 31, 1975. We reprint it here to mark the 50th anniversary of the Kelley House. Once it was known as the Kelley Farm. There was no Albion Street—that was just part of the farm. When it received the house, [...]
December 17, 1930 - Fire destroyed the laboratory in Dr. C. V. Whited’s dental office, located on the north side of Main Street in the building that currently houses the Mendocino Chocolate Company. Flames erupted around 2 pm, while no one was inside the building. The dentist had been working in his office earlier in the afternoon, but had stepped across the street to the fire [...]
Johnny Granskog scraping paint off the Kelley House in 1975. (Photographer: Michael MacDonald) Many of the people who had a hand in the restoration of the Kelley House 50 years ago are no longer with us. However, some were barely out of their teens when they got involved in sanding, scraping, stripping, and clipping, and they are still around. They have wonderful stories about [...]
December 9, 1882 - The formal opening of the Mansion House was celebrated with a Grand Ball. This large hotel was located on the southwest corner of Little Lake and Lansing streets and was constructed by Willits architect and builder O. B. Ackerman for proprietor A. T. Rodgers. The Beacon described the hotel as “three stories in height and well built. On the first floor at [...]
Portrait of Dr. James Milliken, who favored molasses cookies, c. 1885. (Photographer: Ira C. Perry, Gift of Catherine G. Blosser, Sadie Milliken Blosser Collection) We missed National Cookie Day on December 4th, but it is never too late to celebrate those small, sweet cakes. It is not an official or particularly historic holiday, but cookies do have some interesting history. The word cookie comes [...]
Kelley House Holiday Gift Guide - For Your Favorite Pen Pal Kelley House Water Tower Notecards - $15 Greetings from Mendocino! This beautiful watercolor painting of the Kelley House water tower by local artist Suzi Long is reprinted on a set of five 4” x 6” notecards. Built in 1886, the Kelley water tower is one of the last of these majestic structures still standing. Buy [...]
December 5, 1914 - A group of young men in Caspar organized the Sequoia Band, under the guidance of director John Murray. Sequoia Band of Caspar, c. 1915. Top row L-R: Elbert Montgomery, unidentified, Juel Jensen, unidentified, Ragnar Wahlstrom, unidentified, unidentified. Front row: Lester Moody, Jack Casey, Bill Brady, unidentified, unidentified, Bill Nylander, Dave Brinzing, Henry Van Ahnen. (Gift of Vince Johnson) This band [...]
Kelley House Holiday Gift Guide - History Books Make Great Gifts! TEN IN A TOTE HISTORY SET - $120 Save time and money while bestowing the gift of knowledge! We’ve bundled ten of our bestselling history books into our attractive water tower tote bag and made the entire gift set available at 50% off. For just $120 you’ll have eleven different gifts to bestow on friends [...]
December 2, 1925 - Nineteen-year-old Fay Lanphier, recently crowned Miss America, arrived at the Mendocino home of her aunt, Jennie Swanson, for a visit. Fay was born in Elk on December 12, 1905 to Casper and Emily Lanphier. When she was a young girl, the Lanphier family moved to Mendocino, and Fay and her siblings attended the first Mendocino Grammar School on the corner of Pine [...]