Making History Blog

Joe Nichols’ Poolroom

By |2023-01-10T12:40:32-08:00June 22, 2022|

Joe Nichols' Poolroom in Skating Rink Hall in Mendocino, c. 1910. Between 1909 and 1918, Joseph H. Nichols operated a poolroom, concession stand, and moving-picture theatre in the building located on the southwest corner of Ukiah and Lansing Streets. Skating Rink Hall was built by William H. Kelley in 1887 to serve as a dance hall and recreation center. Kelley’s daughter, Daisy MacCallum, remodeled [...]

Tom Doyle Lands Big Fish

By |2023-01-10T12:44:52-08:00June 21, 2022|

Studio portrait of Thomas Doyle, dressed as a cowboy/sheriff with a background of horse saddles, ropes and spurs. (Studio: Chas. McMillan, Vallejo, California) June 21, 1919 - Thomas Doyle, sawyer at the Mendocino Lumber Company mill, caught a 32-pound codfish “in a crab net off the boom-sticks at the mill. Tom thought he had netted a submarine or a trunk of buried treasure when [...]

Silver Workman’s Key-wind Pocket Watch

By |2023-01-10T12:55:22-08:00June 19, 2022|

(Gift of Dorothy Carvalho) Silver workman's key-wind pocket watch, manufactured by the American Watch Company between 1890 and 1910 and owned by Antone Carvalho. Watch has a leather strap with key, two bottom hinges to open face, and top strap loop, white face with black roman numerals and a "seconds" dial, on face. Inscription on watch says "Am Watch Co., Waltham.” This was a [...]

Piccolotti Children Fishing at Boyle’s Camp, c. 1928

By |2023-01-10T13:11:51-08:00June 18, 2022|

Piccolotti Children Fishing at Boyle's Camp, c. 1928. The children are standing on what appears to be a wharf or bridge with a wooden railing, and are holding up several strings of small fish they have presumably caught from Big River. A fishing pole is held upright by one child. The youngest are wearing overalls, and some are barefoot.  Pete Piccolotti, his wife Rosa, [...]

Loggers’ Lingo in the Redwoods

By |2023-01-10T13:17:48-08:00June 16, 2022|

Every profession has its own lingo, its way of talking about its work. The timber business jargon is especially colorful, though it differs somewhat from region to region. Take the words logger and lumberjack: on the North Coast, we had loggers in the woods, but in Minnesota, lumberjacks cut trees.  Large pots of Arbuckle are visible on the tables of this timber cookhouse in the [...]

Main Street, c. 1934

By |2023-01-10T13:29:50-08:00June 15, 2022|

Main Street looking east, c. 1934. Main Street in Mendocino looking east, c. 1934. Bishop's General Store can be seen at the far left. The next building to its right is the Remedy Store with its distinctive round sign in front on the street. The buildings on the right, on the south side of Main Street, were owned by the Union Lumber Company, later [...]

Sheriff Raids Illicit Liquor Sellers

By |2023-01-10T13:34:21-08:00June 13, 2022|

Float for the Fourth of July parade in Mendocino, 1902. Little girls on the wagon dressed as angels are identified as: Isabelle Lyons, center; Laing Chambers, Hazel Packard, Kathryn Boyle and Genie Daniels. Mike Nolan is holding the horses. (Gift of Emery Escola) June 13, 1913 - Mendocino County Sheriff Ralph Byrnes raided the homes and businesses of Joseph Granskog and Michael Nolan, searching [...]

Work That Has No End

By |2023-01-10T13:41:43-08:00June 12, 2022|

June 12, 1885 - Inez Milliken Philbrick was born in Mendocino, the third of six children born to James and Lizzie Milliken. Inez grew up in Mendocino, graduating from Mendocino High School in 1904. After attending San Jose Normal School (now San Jose State University) to obtain her teaching degree, she returned to Mendocino County to teach in the local schools. Inez married John Philbrick in [...]

Readin’ Writin’ and Local History

By |2023-01-10T13:45:23-08:00June 9, 2022|

In late May, the Kelley House welcomed Mendocino High School students and gave them a glimpse of what life was like for people their age over 100 years ago. There were no phones! Kids rode horses to school or walked. Teenagers dressed up and went to tea parties, of all things. Life on the coast at the turn of the century was truly tough. Students [...]

Charles Oscar Packard

By |2023-01-10T13:49:42-08:00June 8, 2022|

C. O. Packard with His Grandchildren, 1917. Left to right: Violet Clyma, Harold Salvador, C. O. Packard, Dorothy Kirkwood, and Buster Salvador. They are on the front porch of his home, located on the northeast corner of Little Lake and Kasten Streets. Mr. Packard was an early-day druggist and business man, who had a store in a now-gone building on Main Street, just two doors [...]

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