Did you know that Mendocino City went “dry” ten years before the rest of the USA? In the summer of 1909, the voters (men) of Mendocino decided to eliminate the sale of liquor. It can be said that Mendocino was a small town with a large drinking problem, and the number of voices speaking against the evils of alcohol had increased. While this decision made temperance [...]
September 16, 1914 - Brickmason Isaiah Betz died in Sacramento at the age of 85, following a stroke. Born in Ohio in 1829, Isaiah and his family arrived in Mendocino County in the 1870s, first settling in Ukiah, where he manufactured bricks and constructed brick buildings. In 1891, Isaiah and his only son Fred moved to Fort Bragg and established a brickyard near Pudding Creek. The [...]
Kelley House founders Beth Stebbins and Dorothy Bear, with Kelley the cat in 1979. (Photographer: Ray Brooks) On September 21st the Kelley House will open a new exhibit—Kelley House Museum: Building a Home—to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The exhibit will follow the origins of the Kelley House Museum from its inception as the Mendocino Historical Research Institute (MHRI), paying tribute to the people who [...]
Photograph of a ship being loaded at the Mendocino Lumber Company's shipping point. A smaller loading boat called a lighter is nearby. The structure on the far left is the freight shed. Rail cars loaded with lumber supplied by the nearby lumber yard (seen in the background) would enter it from the back side. The wood would then be sent out the front on an apron [...]
September 8, 1894 - Dr. James W. Milliken joined the Mendocino Hospital Company as a consulting physician and surgical doctor. Dr. Milliken, an 1877 graduate of the New York Medical College, had arrived in Mendocino in 1883 and started a medical practice here the following year. Mendocino Hospital Building located at 10481 Howard Street, 1887-1910. A white picket fence surrounds the yard of this corner [...]
Back in early May and June we discussed the histories of Mother’s and Father’s Days, respectively, and since we’re coming up on National Grandparents Day, it’s a good time to complete the trilogy. The newest, and least known, celebration of parental units, the observance was designated by Congress as the first Sunday in September after Labor Day, and it was proclaimed a national holiday by President [...]
An elevated view along Ukiah Street looking southeastward, taken from Perley Maxwell's water tower on Calpella Street near Kasten, 1912 - 1922. The building on the left is Apple Hall, built in 1912 and removed in 1944. Beyond it is the very tall Hagenmeyer water tower and J. D. Johnson's tower to its right, both now also gone. The Masonic Hall with its rooftop statuary is [...]
These two images, taken about 135 years apart, show the Justin Packard House on the northeast corner of Main Street and Evergreen Street in Mendocino. Justin E. Packard married Emma Zella Young in 1879, and O. B. Ackerman built this home for the Packard family in 1882. Justin was a jeweler and watchmaker who owned a Main Street shop with his brother Charles O. Packard, who [...]
Miles Paoli, born in Mendocino in 1906, was instrumental in bringing radio to the Mendocino Coast. As a young man, Miles was not drawn to school particularly. Miles’ parents, Raffaelo and Emelia, were hard working immigrants who had found opportunity in the logging industry. Later, the Paoli family purchased the hotel on Mendocino’s Ukiah Street, which had belonged to the Borgnas, and had been known as [...]
Mendocino Old Timers at Saint Anthony's Sunday Potluck, 1973. While the men were being photographed, they added up their ages and came up with 472 years of Mendocino living. They referred to themselves as "Redwood Stumps.” (Photographer: Beth Stebbins) L - R: Joe Lenhares, Herman Fayal, Ernest "Bear" Madeira, Miles Paoli, James O’Donnell, and Tony Lenhares. MENDOCINO WATER TOWERS TOTE BAG - Fifteen of Mendocino’s iconic [...]