The Shell Gas Station Building on Lansing Street in Mendocino. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) July 26, 1924 - The Mendocino Beacon reported that the Bowman & Tyrrell garage had been painted a gorgeous yellow and red. The Shell Oil Company was painting all the local garages that sold their products in the company’s vivid colors. The previous year, George Daniels tore down the original livery [...]
One-half scale replica of the bow of the clipper ship Frolic on the Kelley House lawn. This display was part of an exhibit in 1994 at the Kelley House Museum on the wreck of the Frolic on the Mendocino Coast. The Baltimore Clipper replica was created by Horace Irwin and built by Sam Waldman and Don and Wilma Tucker with a grant from the California Council for the [...]
Carlson's City Hotel, c. 1871-1886. Note the windmill behind the hotel. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) July 24, 1859 - John Edward Carlson married Elizabeth Kupp Broderick. Elizabeth, a widow, was born in County Cork, Ireland and had a 6-year-old son. They had four more children together and operated a successful hotel. John was born in Sweden on June 20, 1827. He came to California [...]
On the way to hunting camp, 1902-1906. (Steve and Sue Sanor, Gray - Nielson - Sanor Family Collection, Kelley House Photographs) July 23, 1911 - Percy Colby, an assistant in John Chambers’ blacksmith shop, had a close call with death while crossing Big River on horseback. He was on a hunting trip near the Mendocino Lumber Company’s Lower Ranch when his horse became mired in quicksand. [...]
Charlotte Hoak grew up in the wilds of Comptche, a local girl, born in 1874 on ranch land that had formerly been under the jurisdiction of the local Pomo chief, Comptche—hence the name the region became known by. Comptche is, in fact, a Pomo word that means “the valley among the hills.” It’s land the Pomo traveled through each summer on their way to the coast [...]
July 21, 1917 - Joe Nichols presented one of the first motion pictures filmed on the Mendocino Coast at his picture house inside Kellieowen Hall on the southwest corner of Ukiah and Lansing. “The Promise” featured a number of local coast residents including Mendocino Lumber Company woods boss, Ed Boyle. Scenes had been shot in several coast locations during December 1916. The Maru and log raft [...]
Is this Mendocino’s first selfie? Family group photograph taken in the north side yard of the Maxwell home on Kasten Street, c. 1915. On the left, Elsie Maxwell is holding her son Kenneth Maxwell, and Joshua Grindle (Elsie's step-father) sits in a chair with her small daughter, Grace Maxwell. In the rear, Eliza Grindle (Elsie's mother) stands with a man that is perhaps Henry Jarvis. On [...]
Hellsgate Dam with a full head of water. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) July 18, 1922 - John Norberry went to Hellsgate logging dam on the Southfork of Big River to increase the height of the dam by two feet and add another gate to the structure. The improvements would increase the volume of water driving logs down the river during freshet time. Constructed by [...]
July 17, 1930 - J. W. Moore and P. W. Cleary flew their airplane from Ukiah to Mendocino. What had been a day-long trip in a horse-drawn carriage only a few years before was now completed in just 25 minutes. Aerial view of the town of Mendocino and mouth of Big River looking east, c. 1941-1958. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) The aviators taught at [...]
July 16, 1921 - Work began to dismantle Saint Vincent’s, the first Catholic Church building in Mendocino County. Located on Little Lake Road, the church site is now part of Hillcrest Cemetery, and a tall white cross marks the approximate place where the building once stood. St. Vincent's Church in Mendocino. View is looking northeast up Lansing Street. Next to the church and to the right [...]