Ice Cream Soda Fountain inside the Remedy Store, Mendocino. (Gift of Carl A. Moore) In 1928, Dr. Russell Preston, beloved Mendocino physician, purchased the town’s only pharmacy, Pioneer Drug Store, located in the building just to the east of here on Main Street. There had been a drug store in that location since 1877, operated by a series of druggists including R. H. Witherell, [...]
Coombs Siblings, c. 1905. Group photograph of the Coombs family siblings, pioneer settlers of Little River, taken in their later years. Standing: Elizabeth Coombs Pullen and Richard Coombs Seated: Ann Coombs Stickney and Caroline Coombs Rice July 16, 1910 - Richard G. Coombs of Little River passed away at the Fort Bragg hospital where he had been recuperating from injuries sustained in a stage [...]
There are people who don’t like to wander through cemeteries, perhaps because they want to avoid remembering that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. But for some of us, an hour or two in an old cemetery is like a magical turn in Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine. If you belong in the latter category, the new Kelley House tour of Evergreen Cemetery is [...]
A color image of the south entrance to the Jerome B. Ford House, located on Main Street in Mendocino, before restoration, c. 1975. Image was taken from the Mendocino Headlands looking north. Of the many buildings the Mendocino Lumber Company owned on the south side of Main Street, the historic Ford House is the only one that remains. In April 1854, Ford returned to [...]
Northeast corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets, 1932. The Johnson building on the corner housed the Mendocino Justice Court on its first floor. The two small rental houses down Ukiah Street on the right, were built by architect/builder/undertaker J. D. Johnson. Stauer's Grocery Store was located on the left and is currently the home of Goodlife Cafe & Bakery. July 11, 1942 - The [...]
Playing at Big River Beach, 1920-1940. Children playing and swimming and people boating at the mouth of Big River. One can see the Big River bridge in the background. (Gift of Dot Johnson) July 10, 1930 - The wheel of a large truck crossing Big River Bridge cut through the floor of the bridge about 60 feet from the north end and fell into [...]
Mendocino Mill Crew, 1897. Front row, left to right: William (Bill) Hines, George Knudsen, Frank Brown, Ernest Knudsen, Will Brown, Albert Gregory, John Salvador. Second row: Henry Kleinschmidt, Joe King, Sr., John Ramus, Fred Halling (Mill boss), Albert Peterson, Frank Clement, Theodore Hansen, Sam Bever (planing mill foreman). Third row: George Jarvis, Frank Mendosa, Tom Knudsen, John Larsen, George Marshal (sawyer), Unidentified, Isaac Silvia, Tom [...]
Walking or sitting, you will pick up some fascinating facts in two new tours for history lovers at the Kelley House Museum. David and Katy Tahja, a team of Kelley House docents from Comptche, have developed tours about the areas of Mendocino history that interest each of them most. Beginning on July 10th, David will lead a two-hour walking tour called “Stump to Ship: Logging in [...]
by Nancy Freeze Mendocino Fourth of July Parade, 1902. A Perley Maxwell photograph of the 1902 Mendocino Fourth of July parade heading east on Main Street near the intersection with Lansing Street. Elaborately decorated floats are drawn by horse teams. People stand and watch the spectacle along the parade route. Note the tall board fence enclosing a garden on the left, constructed with braces to [...]
When we left off last week, Footprints on the Mendocino Coast had John Simpson Ross hurrying to finish his house in Caspar before his family arrived from Canada. In mid-June of 1870, before the house was completely ready, Jane Ross and the three children (William, John, and Lizzie) and her aged parents, Ann and Robert Ralston, disembarked from the Cora down in Caspar Cove. Members of [...]