Making History Blog

Fishing Party Posing with Catch, c.1950

By |2023-01-17T11:51:55-08:00December 17, 2021|

Fishing Party Posing with Catch, c.1950. Joe "Shine" Silva, Sam Munn, an unidentified woman, and Joe Luce Lenhares posing with a large King salmon fish in front of a 1950 Buick Super Dyna-Flow sedan on Ukiah Street in Mendocino. They are standing west of the Beacon building, with (L-R) the C. O. Packard House, the Maxwell-Jarvis House, and the Albert Brown House on Little Lake Street [...]

Elise Kelley Drexler

By |2023-01-17T11:56:47-08:00December 16, 2021|

Mendocino County produced many memorable women, but one proudly declared her occupation as “Capitalist.” This was Elise Drexler, daughter of Mendocino coast pioneers William and Eliza Kelley. A side portrait of the Kelley’s second daughter, Elise, in her twenties. Born in 1866, she was educated at the public schools here, and then at a girls’ private school, and later went to Mills College in [...]

The Stagecoach

By |2023-01-17T12:02:07-08:00December 15, 2021|

by Wilma Tucker Until the 1870s the Mendocino coast was isolated except for the schooners that sailed between San Francisco and Eureka. Travel inland was on foot or by horseback over narrow trails along the ridges. The Coastline Mendocino to Cloverdale Stage, operated by Getz and Castro, in front of Carlson's City Hotel on Main Street, c. 1880. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) [...]

Antone F. Luiz Dies

By |2023-01-17T12:09:28-08:00December 14, 2021|

On this day in Mendocino history… Antone Fernandez Luiz, c. 1880. Antone Fernandez Luiz in regalia of the Portuguese Union of the State of California (UPEC). From a collection of photographs belonging to Antone F. and Annie Lazarus Luiz. (Ira C. Perry (photographer), Gift of Juanita Luiz Craig, Juanita Luiz Craig Collection, Kelley House Photographs) December 14, 1932 - Antone Fernandez Luiz died at [...]

High School Closes Due to Sickness and Weather

By |2023-01-17T12:13:25-08:00December 13, 2021|

The Preston house and property with snow, 1932. This house, which burned down in 1956, was located on the Mendocino Art Center property. An unidentified man stands in the front yard behind the board fence. In the rear is the house's elaborate water tower.  (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) December 13, 1932 - Mendocino High School closed two weeks early for Christmas vacation, [...]

Carl Higgins Dies in Car Accident

By |2023-01-17T12:18:28-08:00December 12, 2021|

Yarding Out Logs with Donkey Engine, 1890-1895. Photo taken between Camp 3 and 4 on the Noyo River. Carl Higgins is in front on the right, running the donkey engine. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) December 12, 1927 - Carl Higgins, foreman of Mendocino Lumber Company’s Northfork logging camp, was killed in a single car accident at “Danger Turn,” a twisty section of [...]

Antone Jerome Dead at 74

By |2023-01-17T12:25:05-08:00December 10, 2021|

December 10, 1932 - Antone Jerome died at his home in Mendocino at the age of 74. He had lived at 45150 Calpella Street for 45 years. Antone and Annie Jerome posing in front of their house at 45150 Calpella Street with six of their children, c. 1899. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) Born on the island of Flores, Azores in 1858, Antone [...]

The Short Life and Sad Death of Russell B. Kelley

By |2023-01-17T12:32:25-08:00December 9, 2021|

Russell Blair Kelley, first son and second child of William and Eliza Kelley, was born on June 29, 1863, at the Kelley House in Mendocino. From the moment of his birth, they had great plans for their son’s future, and the first step was a good education. Russell attended the first Mendocino public school, located near the northeast corner of Lansing and Ukiah Streets, where he [...]

Main Street, Mendocino, 1975

By |2023-01-17T12:37:22-08:00December 8, 2021|

THEN: Looking westward down the north side of Mendocino's Main Street in 1975. The Village Barn is the business in the building on the far right. Next comes Dick's Place with neon cocktail glass sign, then the Mendocino Hotel, followed by the old post office building, the old Remedy Store, then Dostal's Clock Shop (in the Jarvis & Nichols Building, where Gallery Bookshop is in 2021) [...]

Aircraft Warning Station

By |2023-01-17T12:43:47-08:00December 7, 2021|

Photograph of Eleanor Sverko, Burtt Elliott, and Lena Baumgartner at one of the Army Air Force's World War II aircraft warning stations. According to Alvin Mendosa, this one was located on the hill near Mendocino High School. The sign on the station wall reads, "19 Rose-5-O.P." Hand-written on the bottom border of the photographic print are the names "Eleanor Graves, Bertt Elliot, Lena Baumgartner." Aircraft [...]

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