March 18, 1961 - The Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department burned one of the last remaining lumber company structures to the ground to practice their fire-fighting skills. The Freundt house sat on the Mendocino bluffs, on the south side of Main Street, overlooking Mendocino Bay. This house was built around 1855-56 by the Mendocino Lumber Company, and John Freundt, an early partner, lived there while keeping the [...]
March 14, 1909 - Former Woods Superintendent Byron Clark passed away from kidney disease at his home in Mendocino. Born in Ellsworth, Maine, in 1855, Byron arrived in Mendocino in 1874. The following year, his brother John joined him. According to the Beacon, Byron “went to work at once on Big River, and showed such vigor and intelligence in his work that two years later, when [...]
March 11, 1982 - A Fictitious Business Name notice appeared in the Mendocino Beacon for the Blue Heron Inn and The Chocolate Moosse. Robert Heron and Linda Friedman operated these businesses in the Old Bank House, located on the southwest corner of Albion and Kasten Streets. The Chocolate Moosse, located downstairs, offered an attractive community coffee shop. Specialties of the house included espresso, cafe latte or [...]
Rudy Hanson, c. 1917. March 7, 1920 - A tragic accident occurred near the Boom when twenty-year-old Rudy Hanson was killed by the accidental discharge of a shotgun. Rudy, his younger brother Arthur, and Joe Rossi had left Boyle’s camp early on a hand car heading to a point on the river below the Boom to find clams. After securing their clams, they returned to [...]
Studio portrait of William Perry Zerbone, and his son, William Perry Zerbone, Jr., c. 1902. (Gift of Marc and Maurene Catto) March 4, 1897 - William Zerbone, Jr. was born in Mendocino, the only son of William and Mary Almelda (Alves) Zerbone. William, Sr. immigrated from Flores in the Azores Islands in 1884, and Mary was a Mendocino native, the daughter of Portuguese immigrants, [...]
February 27, 1931 - The steamer Sea Foam broke into two pieces on the south reef of the harbor at Point Arena. Most of the cargo washed out to sea, and the ship was a total loss. She had wrecked six days before, while battling a heavy sea. The Wreck of the Sea Foam at Point Arena, 1931. People identified in the photograph are: Eiler [...]
February 25, 1915 - Mendocino Grammar School principal James “Jim” C. Hurley returned from a trip to San Francisco where he had taken the bar examination. The Beacon reported that, “Mr. Hurley’s friends here will be pleased to hear that he was successful in the examination and was admitted to the bar.” Jim was the second of 9 sons born to Richard and Katherine Hurley of [...]
These two images, taken about 36 years apart, show the Albert Brown House located at 45130 Little Lake Street. This house is one of four on the block sometimes referred to as “Banker’s Row,” because the residences here belonged at one time to men involved in the business and financial life of Mendocino. The Albert Brown House, c. 1987. (Kelley House Museum Archives) [...]
Helen and Anthony Lemos, from a photo album belonging to Bertha Reep Mason. (Gift of Bertha Mason) February 20, 1929 - A serious accident occurred at the grammar school just as the children were entering the school building at 9am, according to the Mendocino Beacon. Ten-year-old Helen Lemos was walking up the school steps with a friend “when she was hit on the head [...]
On this day in Mendocino history… February 18, 1972 - Lee Burleson assumed management of Gallery Fair, located on the southwest corner of Ukiah and Kasten Streets. Lee had arrived in Mendocino the year before as the bride of Postmaster Don Burleson. She had previously worked as a technical illustrator for Union Carbide in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and was also a financially successful ceramist and photographer [...]