New in the Kelley House Store! Mendocino Water Towers Tote Bag - Fifteen of Mendocino’s iconic water towers are showcased on this unique tote bag, which makes a great gift, souvenir, or must-have on your next shopping spree. The original design is by local artist Michelle Noe. Enjoy identifying each tower (all are still standing) and get ready to receive compliments from those behind you [...]
Bill Brazill and friends taking the mill off a tall tower on Pudding Creek Road, 1975. This windmill is now on a tower on the east side of Highway 1 in Mendocino. (Photographer: Bill Lemos) New Exhibit! “Water Tower Wonderland" Discover the beauty, ingenuity, and architecture of these iconic structures in the Kelley House Museum’s summer exhibit, “Water Tower Wonderland.” Using historic photographs, original pieces [...]
Sunday School Picnic at Big Hill, 1931. Photograph of women attending the Mendocino Presbyterian Church's Sunday School picnic at Big Hill. Back row: Susie Walbridge, Molly Valentine, Laura Lammers, Catherine Swanson, ? Silver, ? Hamblin. Front row: ? Hanna, Vernice Brown, Mary Nichols. June 18, 1948 - Mrs. Laura Lammers, cousin of Mendocino Beacon editor and proprietor Auggie Heeser, passed away shortly after midnight [...]
The Morgan-Mullen Tower, located behind the last house on the right as you walk down Little Lake Street towards the ocean. This tower was constructed in 1991, after the historic water tower on this property was taken down due to damage sustained during a fire in the 1980s. New Exhibit! “Water Tower Wonderland” Discover the beauty, ingenuity, and architecture of these iconic structures in the Kelley [...]
The best-known local dad, Father Time and the Maiden. Photograph of statuary on top of the Masonic Temple in Mendocino. Writing on the front says, "Symbol on Masonic Hall Tower. Hand carved from solid Redwood by first master of Lodge in 1866. Mendocino, California." The statuary consists of Father Time, the Hourglass of Transience, the Maiden, the Anointment of her Hair, the Acacia Branch in [...]
June 12, 1923 - Agnes “Grace” Fisher died at her home in the San Francisco Bay Area from tuberculosis. She had first arrived in Mendocino 15 years earlier, when her husband became the pastor of the Mendocino Presbyterian Church. Grace was born in Trenton, Illinois in 1878. After spending 10 years teaching grammar school in her hometown, she married her childhood sweetheart, Reverend James Melville Fisher, [...]
Corner of Ukiah and Kasten Streets looking southeast. (Photographer: Robert Dominy) Join us tonight to celebrate the “Water Tower Wonderland” exhibit opening! Discover the beauty, ingenuity, and architecture of these iconic structures in the Kelley House Museum’s summer exhibit, “Water Tower Wonderland.” Using historic photographs, original pieces from local artists, and small-scale models, the exhibit explores the majesty and functionality of many well-known water [...]
To the average browser looking at a shelf of used books on Western Americana at Grassroots Books in Reno it wasn’t much. A weathered old publication called California Journal of Mines and Geology, Volume 49, October 1953 caught my eye because it featured an article by J.C. O’Brien titled “Mines and Mineral Resources of Mendocino County.” For $3.99 I got 50 pages of information on our [...]
City Hotel Water Tower, 2023. The bungalow built in 1917 is in the background on the left. (Photographer: Robert Dominy) The City Hotel Water Tower is the oldest standing water tower in the Mendocino Historic District. Built about 1873, this tankhouse provided water for J. E. Carlson’s City Hotel, which was located at the western end of Main Street. Carlson originally installed a windmill [...]
June 3, 1935 - Former resident Roland Smith died in Sacramento. Roland had first arrived in Mendocino as a traveling evangelist in 1921. At the time, he was visiting towns all over the state, driven by a deep desire to share the old-time Gospel with people across California. In June 1921, Roland held a series of nondenominational revival meetings at the Kelley Baptist Church (where Corners [...]