Alice Earl Wilder, 95, at the Ford Family reunion in 1984. Alice Earl Wilder was the granddaughter of Jerome Bursley Ford, one of the founders of Mendocino. Her letters to Dorothy Bear and Beth Stebbins in 1973 contain reminiscences of her summers spent in Mendocino as a child and later as an adult. The letter below was found in the Kelley House archives by Mary [...]
Morning sunlight warms the northeast corner of the historic Kelley House in these two photographs, taken 115 years apart. Located at 45007 Albion Street, the house was one of the earliest built in Mendocino on a prime spot overlooking the ocean. Eliza Kelley in her Garden, 1909. (Gift of Margaret Kelley Campbell) In the black and white photograph from 1909, Eliza Kelley, then 84 [...]
The June 6, 1914 edition of the Mendocino Beacon announced that Mendocino would celebrate the Fourth of July for the first time since 1908. Those interested in contributing to the town’s plans were invited to attend a meeting that Wednesday at the Bank of Commerce (today’s Out of This World), on the corner of Main and Kasten Streets. Subsequent Beacons published plans for a two-day “clean” [...]
Elevated View of Kasten Street in Mendocino, 1908. (Gift of Cora Hervilla) This black and white postcard, with the title "Kasten Street, Mendocino, Cal.,” shows an elevated view looking north-northeast over several historical buildings, many of which are still standing. The building with the false front in the foreground on the far left was Granskog's Eagle Saloon. Built in 1907, the saloon was forced to close [...]
This is a slightly condensed version of an article originally printed in the Mendocino Beacon on March 7, 2013. On October 17, 1870, a fire broke out in Mendocino on the corner of Main and Kasten. It started about 3 a.m. in the Saint Nicholas Hotel, which stood where Gallery Books is today. Mendocino’s newspaper at the time, the Independent Dispatch, reported that the fire “spread [...]
Excerpt from Mendocino Historical Review Vol. XXVI, Summer, 2012. “Belonging to Places: The Evolution of Coastal Communities and Landscapes between Ten Mile River and Cottoneva Creek.” The remoteness of the northern Mendocino County coast has for most of history demanded self-sufficiency of the people who have made their homes here. V. K. Chestnut and Edward Gifford discuss long lists of native plants harvested by indigenous peoples [...]
June 9, 1940 - California Governor Culbert Olson and Secretary of State Paul Peek spoke at the dedication ceremony for the new bridge over Russian Gulch. Following the speeches by Governor Olson and Secretary Peek, the Governor’s party had the honor of being the first to drive across the newly constructed bridge. Other motorists waited three more weeks for construction to be completed. The bridge opened [...]
When Kevin Milligan first saw Mendocino in June of 1997, he was taken by surprise. He had never been farther north in California than San Francisco and had no idea a place as quaint and beautiful could be found there. A working landscape painter, he was engaged in producing a collection of lithographs on the California Coast, but he was most familiar with Big Sur and [...]
John Figaro with his parents, Manuel and Mary, c. 1890. (Eleanor Sverko Collection) June 3, 1919 - John Figaro died in a New York hospital at the age of 32 after a short illness. At the time of his death, he was returning from his military service overseas. Born in Mendocino in 1887, John was the oldest child of Manuel and Mary (Maderia-Saudades) Figaro. [...]
Mendocino Masonic Hall, c. 1960. These two photographs, taken about 65 years apart, show the Masonic Hall located on the northwest corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets in Mendocino. This historic structure, one of the oldest buildings still standing in town, was surveyed in May 1976 for the State Office of Historic Preservation by Kelley House Museum co-founder Beth Stebbins. The Mendocino Masonic Lodge, [...]