August 20, 1860 - Patrick Padden purchased a lot on Main Street, west of Kasten, where the Mendocino Jewelry Store is located in 2022. Here, he built and operated Mendocino's second saloon. West Main Street, c. 1865. View of the west end of Main Street in Mendocino looking northeast before the fire of 1870 destroyed this part of town. A group of men gather in [...]
View looking northwestward showing the Company lumberyard, located on the north side of Big River flat. The gantry crane at the end of the rails was used to move the stacks of lumber around within the lumberyard. The rails ran out from the mill (behind the camera), through the lumberyard to the Incline behind the crane. Loaded railcars were pulled by a hoisting engine to [...]
I was walking down Calpella Street toward the ocean last week when I crossed Woodward Street, Heeser, Rundle, and finally Kelly. Heeser and Kelly I know, but who were Woodward and Rundle? Coming back on Ukiah Street, I encountered Osborn and William. Locals know that, with a few exceptions, the north-south streets in Mendocino are named after early settlers and the east-west streets after nearby places. [...]
Herman Fayal and His Miniature Houses, 1986. For years the Fayal family home on the corner of Calpella and Kelly streets, where Herman lived for over 80 years, was a showplace for his carpentry skills with a miniature scene of Mendocino’s old Main Street, doll houses, water towers, wind mills, flower boxes, and a series of miniatures showing the progression of lumber from the log [...]
Ships in Albion Harbor, 1897. Ships in Albion harbor are: an unknown craft on far left carried tanbark; the Amethyst, second from left, carried ties; and the scow, Sacramento, second from right, loading from lighter - all lined up to load lumber at Albion wharf on August 15, 1897. Other ships are unidentified. (Gift of Emery Escola) New! Cemetery Tour - Take a hauntingly beautiful walk [...]
Main Street Courtyard, 1963-1977. In 1961, Bill Zacha, founder of the Mendocino Art Center and owner of this property, constructed a new building that housed on its lower floor the Mendocino Laundromat, seen here on the right. The Laundromat operated until 1977, when water shortages caused it to close down. (Gift of Karen McGrath) August 14, 1967 - Mendocino Laundromat was the scene of [...]
Boyle's Camp on Big River, 1912 - 1930. (Gift of Ronnie James) August 13, 1917 - The Thompson School opened with Miss Hazel Bowman as the first teacher. This school was named for Henry Thompson and was located on his ranch on Little Lake Road, east of the Mendocino Woodlands. Mr. Thompson built the original schoolhouse near his home to provide a school for [...]
The current exhibit on Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, and the poster art they inspired, had curators at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino digging through the archives and finding wonderful depictions of local folks, and flights of fantasy, produced by illustrators and cartoonists of the late 1960s and 70s. On August 14th at 3:30 p.m., “Sunday Afternoon With…the Cat Mother Illustrators” will take [...]
On this day in Mendocino history… The Piccolotti children, c. 1935. Back row, left to right: Fred, Albert, George. Front row: Henry, Emil, Louis with baby Alice in front of Henry. August 10, 1946 - Emil Piccolotti died at the Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado at the age of 20. He had enlisted in the United States Army in January 1945, and at [...]
THEN: Looking west towards the Kelley House pond, April 1975. Homer Drinkwater operated a market in the building in the background from 1947 to 1974. In April 1975, Robert Peterson, founder of the Jack in the Box fast-food chain and owner of the Mendocino Hotel, presented the deed to the Kelley House property to Mendocino Historical Research, Inc. (later, the Kelley House Museum), for its restoration [...]