The Schooner J. C. Ford loading lumber under the chute in Mendocino Harbor, c. 1985. Photo from the Alice Earl Wilder Collection, courtesy Kelley House Museum. If there is only one vessel the Kelley House can feature during its current nautical exhibit, the Schooner J. C. Ford is a good choice. In the May 20, 1882 issue of the “Mendocino Beacon” newspaper, it was reported the new three-masted schooner J. C. Ford had arrived. Messrs. Samuel B. Blair, Jerome C. Ford, and Edwards C.[... see full page]

The big trees in the background reveal that these festival goers were not at Woodstock, but rather the Albion People’s Fair, a few years later. They are Katy and David Tahja on the right and Susan Alban and Wesley Stoft on the left.    On the August weekend in 1969 that saw nearly half a million children of God on their way to Yasgur’s farm in upstate New York “to try and get their souls free,” what could the Aquarian peace[... see full page]

Dancing at a picnic on the Albion River with the Stevens, Gray and Pullen families. (Kelley House Museum Photo Archives, gift of Steve & Sue Sanor) When the dancers start busting their moves at the up-coming Woodstock 50th Anniversary Dance Party at Crown Hall on August 17th, they will not only be celebrating the golden jubilee of that iconic rock festival, but also taking their places in a long line of hoofers who have dipped and twirled in many Mendocino halls[... see full page]

View of Lansing Street in Mendocino, looking north from Albion Street between 1923 and 1930. The building on the left is known as the Shell Building and was built as a garage in 1923. Fiddleheads and Moody’s Coffee occupy it now. The building next to the garage, (now Rainsong) was known as Kelly or Kaze's Hall and later Kellieowen Hall. Going up the street, the Masonic Lodge with its rooftop statuary is on the left, and at the top of[... see full page]

Oral History Interview in 2000 with Homer Drinkwater, Gilda Lillian Canclini Drinkwater, Steve Jordan (behind) and students Joshua Novakov Lawlor, Mandela Linder, and Lola Thornton of Mendocino Middle School. Back in 2000, students of Ryan Olson Day’s Options Class at the Mendocino Middle School created an oral history project with a grant obtained by Deena Zarlin. They interviewed and recorded twelve “Old Timers” who told these children what it was like living on the Mendocino Coast in the 20th century. Two decades[... see full page]

Residents of Mendocino County leaving Ukiah, CA in 1942 for a Japanese prison camp in Colorado during World War II. Pictured, left to right: Mr. & Mrs. Sam Wada and Mr. & Mrs. Joe Onomiya of Ukiah; Mrs. & Mr. Frank Wada of Hopland. (Photo Courtesy of Held-Poage Research Library, Ukiah) The current Kelley House Museum exhibit, “The Story of Look Tin Eli: Exclusion and Citizenship on the Mendocino Coast,” explores the fight for citizenship by Mendocino’s Asian-Americans. It begins[... see full page]