Elevated view of the town of Mendocino c. 1909. View is looking southeastward from the corner of Lansing and Main Streets, and probably taken from the Kelley water tower. Power poles are on both sides of Main Street.
In the immediate foreground is the roof of the old Kelley Building. Right front is the Occidental Hotel with a water tower and windmill behind it. Traveling east (left) on Main Street is the William Norton house built in 1884, then the Presbyterian Church. In the background is the Mendocino Lumber Company’s sawmill with workers’ cabins. Smoke from the wood-fired steam engine boilers is visible.
On the left are buildings that once belonged to William Kelley, but are no longer there. The vacant lot was purchased by the Mendocino Rotary Club for a public park. The rooftop of the building once used as a Chinese laundry can be seen on the left, and the building further back facing south was a dwelling or a rooming house. (Gift of Margaret Kelley Campbell, Margaret Kelley Campbell Collection, Kelley House Photographs)
More historical photos of Mendocino available in “Perley Maxwell’s Mendocino,” by Bruce Levene. Includes the Mendocino High School Photography Students 2002 Then & Now Project. $25.