Ox Team at The Point, 1873 - 1878. View toward the northeast of two yoked oxen at the Mendocino Shipping Point. The animals were used to move lumber along a narrow railway that ran from the Incline at the top of the bluffs above the Mendocino Lumber Company's sawmill, out to the lumber yard at The Point for shipment. Lumber is stacked nearby. A man in [...]
September 9, 1949 - The Pacific Enterprise, a British tramp steamer, ran aground on treacherous rocks about a mile offshore of the Point Arena lighthouse in a heavy coastal fog. The ship was traveling from Vancouver, B. C. to Glasgow, Scotland, and its cargo of lumber, wheat, canned salmon, and zinc and lead ingots was estimated to be worth $4 million. The Pacific Enterprise at Point [...]
September 6, 1914 - Albert Brown, secretary of the Farmers & Apple Growers Association, began a trip across Mendocino County to promote the upcoming Mendocino Apple Fair. Albert was the founder of the apple show and the driving force behind the construction of Apple Hall, which was built in 1912 for produce exhibits including the fair. Albert’s first stop was the south coast where he met [...]
September 4, 1930 - A big crowd turned out for the first night of roller skating at the skating rink on the southwest corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets. The Beacon reported that “The opening night was well attended and there were a large number of skaters on the floor most of the evening.” The skating sessions, managed by Joseph Scheper, would operate on Wednesday, Thursday, [...]
Saint Anthony's Catholic Church, 1906-1930. The first Saint Anthony's in Mendocino with the monastery in the rear. September 2, 1906 - Very Reverend Father Anthony Brennan, Provincial Superior of the Capuchin Franciscans, dedicated the order’s newly completed monastery adjacent to St. Anthony’s Catholic Church on Lansing Street. He also unveiled the Statue of St. Anthony of Lisbon, a gift from A. L. Gonsalves of Melburne. Builder [...]
I recently completed my time as the collections intern at the Kelley House Museum as part of my MA in Museum Studies coursework at the University of San Francisco. The project I was assigned was to help catalog a collection left to the museum by a descendant of the Kelley family, Rosemary Maulbetsch, the great-granddaughter of William and Eliza Kelley, who passed away in 2017. The [...]
Photograph capturing a view looking northwest in Mendocino taken by Perley Maxwell, probably from a water tower on Albion Street. The large two-story building is the second Odd Fellows Hall, located on the northeast corner of Ukiah and Kasten Streets. It was partially demolished in 1955 and turned into apartments and offices. To its right is the hall's out house, which still stands in 2022. A [...]
August 29, 1887 - H. E. Wilkinson, a clerk for the United States Signal Service, arrived in Mendocino to install a weather station. This station was one of ten set up thru a partnership between the Signal Service and the San Francisco Chronicle. The other locations were San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Rosa, Yreka, San Bernardino, Modesto, Bakersfield, Indio, and Carson City, Nevada. View of [...]
August 28, 1937 - The high school’s new gymnasium was dedicated with a dance that was open to the public. The Beacon reported that almost 550 people attended the dance, which was sponsored by the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). The PTA President was Mamie Mendosa. First Mendocino High School Gym, c. 1954 Dancing started about 9 o’clock, and “the floor is in excellent shape and [...]
In 1887, Charles Denslow, bookkeeper for the Mendocino Lumber Company, purchased this lot on the northwest corner of Kasten and Calpella Streets. Denslow moved an existing small house north onto an adjoining property, and master carpenter J. D. Johnson built this house on the south end of the lot. Undated photo of the Denslow-Maxwell House. Note its distinctive round window and brick chimney top, the [...]