Making History Blog

Many of these articles have been published in the Mendocino Beacon’s Kelley House Calendar.

Meat Markets on the South Side

...February 20th, 2020

by: Katy Tahja

As part of the Kelley House Museum’s current show, “South of Main,” featuring buildings and businesses that once existed on the south side of the street, let’s look at the evolution of our local meat market. The interior of Quaill’s City Meat Market on Main Street in Mendocino, c. 1920. Butchers are Tony and Joe Quaill. Children are Virginia and Harry Quaill. On the left is a chopping block made from a very large tree stump. The building that housed[... see full page]

View From Above

...February 13th, 2020

by: Katy Tahja

aerial view, 1947 MAIN STREET FROM ABOVE. The South Of Main exhibit at the Kelley House Museum (through May 18th) offers some unusual photographic views as we rediscover what was on Mendocino’s Main Street before 1960, when the last of the buildings were torn down and the view from the Headlands was fully revealed. This 1947 photograph, obtained from the California Landmark Foundation, intrigues all who see it. Many recognizable buildings are on the north side, but what were those facing[... see full page]

Building Mendocino: Tin Roofs

...February 6th, 2020

by: Karen McGrath

Mendocino is a wooden place. No surprise there, since the town’s economy was founded on trees. The lumber mill provided plentiful building supplies for homes, stores and sidewalks. Kasten Street at Albion Street in Mendocino, c. 1912. The Bank House (now Trillium restaurant) is on the left, surrounded by a white picket fence. A Jarvis & Nichols storage barn is on the right, constructed in 1904 with corrugated iron siding and roof after a fire burned a previous storage building. The[... see full page]

New Exhibit, South of Main, Opens at Kelley House Museum

...January 30th, 2020

by: Karen McGrath

Lost Buildings of the Mendocino Headlands - The City Meat Market (left) and the Mendocino Lumber Company Office (right) on the south side of Main Street, in 1957. The inspiration for the latest exhibit at the Kelley House Museum, South of Main, came from a question we so frequently hear – what used to be there? The THERE refers to the south side of downtown Mendocino’s Main Street, where there are no buildings. Museum visitors, walking tour docents, residents - all[... see full page]

Headlands History

...January 23rd, 2020

by: Karen McGrath

Meat Market on the South side of Main Street, 1957. Originally built in 1874, the structure always housed a meat market on its ground floor. It was one of just a few of the many Company buildings still standing when it was torn down in the summer of 1960 by its owner, the Union Lumber Company. SOUTH of MAIN – Discovering the Lost Buildings of the Mendocino Headlands opens next week at the Kelley House Museum. The exhibit takes visitors on[... see full page]