The following excerpts originally appeared in the Mendocino Beacon on April 17 and May 1, 1975. The authors are unknown. April 17, 1975 The Kelley House began its new life as Mendocino Historical Research, Inc. (MHRI) headquarters on April 5, 1975. That was the day Robert O. Peterson presented the deed to the board of directors. [MHRI was founded by Dorothy Bear and Beth Stebbins and [...]
In celebration of Earth Day on April 22, below is an excerpt on local horticulturist Charlotte Milliken Hoak from the 2016 Kelley House publication From Maidens to Mavericks: Mendocino’s Women, written by local author, Molly Dwyer. Hoak was born in 1874 in the wilds of Comptche. She liked to say she was born with two green thumbs. Both of her parents loved growing plants and, on [...]
Returning to Mendocino this May to share my newly published memoir—Beaujolais in My Blood: Growing up Gay and Well-Fed in a Family-Run Restaurant—will be a thrilling and sweet homecoming. I’m bringing the story of my adolescence living in the small Victorian village above Café Beaujolais, where my parents, Ellen and Gerald Pitsenbarger, created a small French restaurant. The cafe evolved into a famous local institution and [...]
Studio portrait of C. Coyle, likely Catherine Coyle, who owned the boarding house on the northwest corner of Kasten and Ukiah. (Gift of Emery Escola) In celebration of Women’s History Month, here is an excerpt from the Kelley House publication From Maidens to Mavericks: Mendocino’s Women, Mendocino Historical Review Volume XXIX, written by local author, Molly Dwyer. The book can be purchased in the [...]
Originally printed in the Mendocino Art Center’s Fall 2003 Arts & Entertainment magazine Every March the annual Mendocino Coast Whale Festival celebrates the migration of the Pacific Gray Whales with their newborn calves from western Baja to the Bering Sea. But this celebration would not be possible without the 1976 Mendocino Whale Wars that helped to save the then-endangered species. The following is an excerpt spotlighting [...]
Until the 1870s, the Mendocino coast was isolated except for the schooners that sailed between San Francisco and Eureka. Travel inland was on foot or by horseback over narrow ridge trails worn by the local native peoples. During the 1860s, roads began to be built between Mendocino and Ukiah and Mendocino and Cloverdale. According to Elsa E. Thompson’s 1973 Early Settlers of Comptche Along Its Many [...]
Part 3 of our “dark and stormy night” series, this article continues the story from last week’s column and first appeared in the Mendocino Beacon on December 6, 2007 When we left the storm-battered little steamer Pomo, she and her rescue boat, Adeline Smith, were waiting to cross the treacherous seas at the bar to San Francisco Bay on the night of January 2, 1914 [the [...]
Given our recent weather, we’re continuing the “dark and stormy night” theme from last week with this article that first appeared in the Mendocino Beacon on August 30, 2007. Captain Orlando "Ole" Lilleland was master of the wooden steam schooner Pomo, which operated along the Mendocino coast hauling redwood and farm goods south and general freight north. Pomo was of modest size, built to be handy [...]
A long-time pillar of the Kelley House passed away in early December, and we wish to acknowledge her work for the museum and the community it serves. Both as a tireless volunteer and a dedicated employee, Megan Coddington Smith did much to make the Kelley House Museum the institution it is today. Megan was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in January 1942, the youngest of four children, [...]
Exhibit runs through 11/27/2022 Members only reception and viewing Friday, October 21 at 5:00 PM “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes." Dr. James Milliken’s casket in the parlor of the Milliken house, in 1909 The Kelley House Museum invites you to explore one of life's certainties—death—through a new exhibit on funeral customs followed throughout Mendocino’s history. Far from [...]