Albert “Bert” Grindle Stone inside his family’s jewelry and clock store located on the south side of Main Street in Mendocino. Bert is dressed in a suit and tie and stands on the right, behind chest-high, glass-topped display cases filled with jewelry and other goods. A row of clocks sits on a long wall shelf behind him.
A row of electric light bulbs with glass shades hang from the wood-planked ceiling to light the cases below. An oil lamp hangs from a ceiling hook on the right. The walls on either side of the room have deep cornices with crown moulding. The wall on the right has a window framed by heavy, white-painted trim. Two paneled doors are placed in the back partition wall. One of them is open and appears to lead into an office with a high backed chair. A window behind the chair admits light into this rear room. A third door on the right wall is closed, and likely leads outdoors.
In the center of the bare-floored room, a wooden chair sits next to a small heating stove. The round metal flue rises from the stove toward the ceiling, and then exits through the back partition wall. A heavy-looking black metal case on wheels on this back wall may be a safe, and to its left hangs a poster advertising the “Parker Self-Filling Pen.” The wall calendar to the right of the safe reads, “July 1924” and has a picture labeled “The Fort Bragg Commercial Bank,” which was in existence from 1921-1926. (That bank building would later become the Bank of Italy, then the Bank of America, and later house the Out of This World store.) The Stone building was located on the opposite corner from the bank building, at the intersection of Kasten and Main Streets and had living spaces above it.
The Kelley House relies on the generous support of its community. Donations of any amount are greatly appreciated.