Look Tin Eli in traditional Chinese dress, circa 1890. Born in 1870 on Main Street in Mendocino, Look Tin Eli helped set the precedent for birthright citizenship in the U.S. and later became a successful businessman and community leader. Over eighty years after his death, Congress designated May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Month (changed to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander [...]
If there’s one thing Murder, She Wrote fans have in common, it is a deep and abiding respect for Angela Lansbury and the fictitious character, Jessica Fletcher, that she portrays on the television show. When Lansbury died in 2022, local fans placed wreaths on the Blair House Inn, which appears as Jessica’s home in the show. The following year the Kelley House Museum held a reception [...]
Toll Bridge over Big River, c. 1881. (Gift of Margaret Kelley Campbell) An elevated view of the first bridge over Big River taken by Ira C. Perry, who worked in Mendocino from about 1880 to 1895. The bridge was built by the Big River Bridge Company, composed of Spencer W. Hill, a Mendocino rancher; Isaac P. Smith, a trader living in Little Lake Township; [...]
Angela Lansbury in front of the Kelley House, 1988. Kelley House Collection. The first weekend of May marks the second annual Murder, She Wrote Festival, bringing hundreds of fans of all ages to Mendocino. The series aired from 1984 to 1996 and has been in syndication since, contributing to its lasting popularity. In her 2025 book Murder, She Wrote, Bridget Kies investigates this popularity, [...]
The spring exhibit at the Kelley House Museum is titled Don’t Panic * Eat Organic: 50 Years of the Corners Collective. It features the history of the business and the Kelley church building, photos of collective members, and memorabilia. Included in the exhibit are copies of The Scoop, the newsletter written by collective members from 2009 to 2013. The Scoop included articles on health and wellness, [...]
Angela Lansbury superfans, known as “Fangelas” are preparing to flock to the Mendocino Coast the first weekend in May for the sold-out Second Annual “Murder, She Wrote Festival.” The TV series is one of the most watched shows in syndication, and Mendocino was used as a filming location for nine of the episodes. Many locals have fond memories of the days the production company came to [...]
Theresa Murray, date unknown. Kelley House photo. As Women’s History Month ends, local author Molly Dwyer’s words from 2017 still ring true— “Discovering women’s history is no easy matter … one must scour multiple sources to discover a sentence or, with luck, a paragraph acknowledging them.” Thanks to a small paragraph in an 1884 Mendocino Beacon article, we know a little more about two [...]
America Jane Moore was born on July 16, 1839 in Missouri to William H. Moore and Nancy Logan. In the late 1840s, the Moore family moved to California, settling in Sonoma County. America Jane married Commodore Cornelius Fulton Elliott, and they had five children: Florence Eleanor (1862), Ida May (1865), Elizabeth (Lizzie) (1867), Henry Harrison (1869), and Burtt Logan (1873). In 1873, America Jane divorced her [...]
James Dean was the Timothée Chalamet of his generation. If you have somehow missed Timothée’s rising star, think young Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio. So when the handsome, moody hunk arrived in Mendocino in late May of 1954 to star in Elia Kazan’s production of “East of Eden,” people took notice. It’s good that they did because it was the beginning of his meteoric film career [...]
The little coastal town of Mendocino, California, has long been a hotbed of progressive activism. In 1976, the cause was saving whales from slaughter by Russian and Japanese whaling fleets. In June, 1975, a Greenpeace patrol boat located a Russian fleet killing sperm whales off Cape Mendocino. Activists used a high-speed Zodiac inflatable to maneuver themselves between the harpooners and the whales, capturing dramatic footage of [...]