Cammie King Conlon served as the first executive director of Kelley House Museum when she moved to Northern California in 1980. She worked closely with the museum's founders, Beth Stebbins and Dorothy Bear, and tells stories of early days at Kelley House and 30 years of changes on the coast. Event occurred on 28 June 2009. Filmed by Julia Larke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96H_I03uKKo New Exhibit! Celebrate the 50th [...]
October 15, 2003 - A dying Monterey Cypress tree on the Kelley House lawn was cut down. "We are very sad about it coming down, but we can't afford to endanger anyone,” local historian and long time resident Dee Lemos said. Rich and Jack Lemos estimated the tree to be 100 to 125 feet tall, making it the third-largest cypress on the Mendocino Coast. Although there’s [...]
Rob Hawthorn sharing ghost stories at the Mendocino Hotel When I moved to Mendocino in 1995, I lived in a fantastic two story Victorian with a water tower, built sometime before 1880. I was already a history buff and a fan of ghost stories, so when my mother-in-law started talking about sensing a “mysterious presence” at the top of the stairwell, I was over [...]
Daisy Kelley MacCallum’s cake recipe, sent to Beth Stebbins and Dorothy Bear in 1979 by Drex Kelley, grandson of Daisy’s brother Otis. The handwriting belongs to either Daisy or Drex’s mother Susan McDonald Kelley (wife of Otis’ oldest son Lloyd) New Exhibit! Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Mendocino Historical Research Inc., now known as the Kelley House Museum. Meet founders Dorothy Bear and Beth [...]
October 8, 1920 - Eugene Brown passed away at his home on Main Street in Mendocino following a month-long illness. His death was attributed to a weak heart, and the Beacon noted that “Though old in years, he was mentally alert and vigorous almost to the last.” Born on May 1, 1835, in Oldtown, Maine, Eugene was the youngest son of Moses and Nancy Nesmith Brown. [...]
When the Kelley House began its journey from a private residence to a museum in 1975, its interior walls were covered with sagging strips of wallpaper, the adhesive having deteriorated almost completely. As renovations went forward, samples of these vintage wallcoverings were preserved in the museum’s archives. They had stylized floral patterns in metallic gold and silver, burgundy, gold and pale yellow, and deep burgundy, a [...]
Public education began in Mendocino in 1862, when a primary school was established near the corner of Ukiah and Lansing streets. Captain David Lansing donated the lot, and the local sawmill contributed lumber for the schoolhouse. As the community grew, a larger school was needed, and a new primary school building was constructed on the northeast corner of School and Pine streets in 1885. That school [...]
Did you know that Mendocino City went “dry” ten years before the rest of the USA? In the summer of 1909, the voters (men) of Mendocino decided to eliminate the sale of liquor. It can be said that Mendocino was a small town with a large drinking problem, and the number of voices speaking against the evils of alcohol had increased. While this decision made temperance [...]
September 16, 1914 - Brickmason Isaiah Betz died in Sacramento at the age of 85, following a stroke. Born in Ohio in 1829, Isaiah and his family arrived in Mendocino County in the 1870s, first settling in Ukiah, where he manufactured bricks and constructed brick buildings. In 1891, Isaiah and his only son Fred moved to Fort Bragg and established a brickyard near Pudding Creek. The [...]
Kelley House founders Beth Stebbins and Dorothy Bear, with Kelley the cat in 1979. (Photographer: Ray Brooks) On September 21st the Kelley House will open a new exhibit—Kelley House Museum: Building a Home—to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The exhibit will follow the origins of the Kelley House Museum from its inception as the Mendocino Historical Research Institute (MHRI), paying tribute to the people who [...]