Competition is native to the American character. To be first seems of great value. First at the clam chowder cook-off, first in Little League, first in line. Historians prattle about who or what was first. So, let's prattle about the trains that once rattled through town, carrying lumber to the Point. A photograph of a stereograph showing the Incline on the tramway from the Big [...]
Denny Greenberg standing in the doorway of Melody's Cookies, a store located on Lansing Street just south of Little Lake Street, April 1975. The “Melody’s Cookies” sign was created by John Chamberlin. Melody's Cookies opened in 1973 on Lansing Street across from Mendosa's grocery store. Owner Melody Joy sold giant ginger, peanut butter, chocolate chip, and oatmeal raisin cookies. The cookie shop’s little building [...]
Portrait of Catherin Denslow Morgan. (Ira C. Perry (Photographer), Gift of Catherine G. Blosser, Sadie Milliken Blosser Collection) April 12, 1925 - Cathrin Morgan died from pneumonia in Long Beach at the age of 72. Described by the Beacon as one of the community’s best beloved and finest characters, Cathrin, “as had been her custom for some five or six years past, was spending [...]
Loading Shed at the Mendocino Shipping Point, c. 1950. It was dismantled in 1951. April 11, 1928 - A tremendous crash was heard at 7:30 AM throughout Mendocino as eight train cars loaded with lumber ran through the Shipping Point’s loading shed and fell to the rocks below. The Beacon reported, “When the crew of the steamer Noyo and the longshoremen were busily engaged [...]
April 10, 1930 - Alphonso Riede was born in Toronto, Ontario, the only child of Alphons and Katharine Hingel Riede. His father was a wood sculptor who served in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, the Riede family moved to Santa Barbara, and Alphonso graduated from high school there, before majoring in music composition and piano at Santa Barbara State College (now UC [...]
Campfire Girls on Big River Beach in various states of dress, from uniforms to bloomers to swim suits, 1926. Standing, L. to R.: Eva Walton, Harvena Davies, Gleneice Silvia, Irene Granskog, Evelyn Bowman, Merna Brown, Mary Silvia. Sitting, L. to R.: Helen Tyrrell, Edna Freathy, Jane Cleary, Ruby Carvalho. April 8, 1958 - Gleneice Silvia died at the age of 45. She suffered a [...]
Village of Kibesillah in 1879. At one time, Kibesillah was one of the most important of the early north coast towns. First settled in the 1860s, the first business was a blacksmith shop in 1867. In its prime it had twenty to thirty buildings, including three hotels, three saloons, a public school and a Baptist church. Nothing of this is left – not even a [...]
1975 West Main Street in Mendocino, 1975. View looking west along the north side of Mendocino's Main Street in 1975. The farthest building on the left is the old Neto Hotel Barbershop, which in 1975 was occupied by Victorian Vignettes, a photographic studio. Next is the Zacha Building, built in 1965, then the old Lemos Saloon/Store that housed at this time a store called [...]
Studio portrait of Hazel Packard Dennison with parrot toy, c. 1900. Born April 5, 1897, Hazel was the daughter of Charles Oscar and Hannah Cline Packard of Mendocino. (Gift of Hazel Packard Dennison) A little girl in a wicker chair holds a parrot. She is gazing down at the toy and dressed in a white, ruffled gown. Meet Hazel Packard Dennison, born on this [...]
Studio portrait of Mollie Norton, her father William Norton who owned Norton’s Hotel on Main Street, and their dog, Prince, c. 1882. (Gift of Evelyn Larkin) April 4, 1890 - A very interesting and instructive debate took place in Professor W. H. Greenwell’s department of the public school on the question of whether women should be allowed to vote. The Beacon reported on the [...]