Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher riding a bike. Likely taken in Fort Bragg. The Kelley House Museum’s current exhibition, Angela Lansbury: Muse of Cabot Cove, has brought back many wonderful memories of Lansbury and her time in Mendocino. One of our docents and celebrated local historian, Katy Tahja, shares a few of her memories from Lansbury’s time filming in Mendocino: I worked as a [...]
Happy Valentine’s Day from the Kelley House Museum! Vintage postcard addressed to Ethel Silveria of Mendocino, 1907 - 1921. (Gift of Sandra Hawthorne) Walking Tours of Historic Mendocino - Join our expert docents for a stroll and lively commentary. You’ll pass by early pioneer homes, historic meeting places, and buildings that make up the the Mendocino Historic District.
The Kelley House Museum needs your help to solve a history mystery. While cataloging a photograph album this week, we came upon a postcard with a photograph of three men standing on some lumber at a mill. There is no information about who these men are, when the photograph was taken, or even where the lumber mill is. We are left without any breadcrumbs to follow [...]
February 6, 1960 - Ethel Nelson died in a Oakland nursing home after a long illness. Born in Mendocino in 1883, she was the daughter of Elizabeth May (Bessie) Carlson and Captain Henry Nelson. Ethel’s grandfather was John Carlson, who arrived in Mendocino in 1852 on the brig Ontario which brought the first sawmill machinery to Mendocino. Bessie Carlson Nelson (center) with her children, Henry [...]
February 4, 1984 - Amati’s Shoe Boutique closed its doors for the last time after operating for more than six years on Main Street. The Main Street Courtyard Buildings, 1977-1984. Buildings on Albion Street in Mendocino at the north end of the Main Street Courtyard. The sign in the yard reads, "Amati's Mendocino." Amati's Shoe Store occupied the lower floor of the building on the [...]
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 [...]
January 31, 1941 - Robert Sutherland graduated from the California School of Mechanical Arts in San Francisco. This school offered a technical junior college course that bestowed an Associate of Arts upon graduation. Robert, a 1938 Mendocino High School graduate, majored in Machine Shop Practice and served an apprenticeship with the Pacific Can Company of San Francisco. The company had recently hired him as an employee, [...]
January 29, 1966 - The Maxwell-Jarvis House on Little Lake Street was heavily damaged by fire. Local builder Albert Maxwell constructed this home for his daughter Ardelle and her husband Henry Jarvis, a Mendocino merchant, shortly after their marriage in 1878. Henry and Ardelle had two daughters, Mabel and Grace, who were born and raised in this house. William G. “Biff” and Marillyn Buckaloo purchased the [...]
The inside of the lighthouse was a mess after the big wave washed through it. A few days into this new year, a little after 8:00 am on January 5th, a large wave scaled the 50-foot bluff in front of the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, broke down the double front doors, and flowed through the main room all the way to the back door. It [...]
On this day in Mendocino history… January 24, 1890 - The Mendocino Lumber Company mill began operating again after a two-month closure. The mill had been in violation of a new state law prohibiting the dumping of sawdust into rivers, as the pollution was killing fish. Sawmills had historically disposed of their waste by dumping it into the nearest stream. According to “Big River was Dammed” [...]