The Sotoyome, 1904. The ship is moored directly in front of the South Side Hotel where the festivities and celebrations of the launch were centered. Just behind her on the left is a short drawbridge with a steel structure, which took the Coast Road over the Albion River. It would have to be raised for the ship to pass through to the ocean. (Dilling Photo [...]
A barbershop in Mendocino, c. 1903. On the left, Ruel Armas, barber, cuts the hair of Fred Brown. On the right, Lee Dodge, barber, stands next to client, Ed Boyle. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) December 4, 1938 - Lee Dodge left Mendocino for the last time, planning to make his home in Elkhart County, Indiana where he had spent his entire childhood. [...]
Editorial staff of the Boom for the school year of 1928. The Boom was the yearbook for Mendocino High School. Back row L - R: Ruth Tumelty, Louie Borgna, Ernest Handelin, Dave Paoli, Mort Swales, Don Philbrick, Hugh Granskog, Bob Swales. Front Row: Dot Daniels, Clara Dillings, Johanna Jacobs, Thelma Silva, Merna Brown, Grace Maxwell, Lucy Burton, Grace Nichols, Inez Philbrick, Rene Borgna. (Kelley House [...]
The Kelleys were in the town of Mendocino at its founding in 1852. And over these last many years, we thought we had come to know a lot about them. A compelling image of Lloyd Drexler Kelley, William and Eliza Kelley’s grandson, recently received by the Kelley House Museum from family descendants. This was Lloyd’s official Army portrait taken when he was about 22 years [...]
Studio portrait of Lafayette Woodward, c. 1850. Woodward Street in Mendocino may have been named after him. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) December 1, 1858 - The Mendocino Post Office was established when President James Buchanan appointed Lafayette Woodward its first postmaster. The post office was located inside Woodward’s mercantile store, which was on the property just west of the building that houses [...]
November 30, 1938 - The Mendocino mill shut down for the last time. This was the third sawmill built at Mendocino. Mendocino Lumber Mill Panorama, c. 1907 - 1915. Panoramic photograph of the Mendocino Lumber Company mill. Lumber crews are casually standing in the foreground. From left to right are rails, water tanks, operations buildings and the log pond on Big River. (Schuyler U. Bunnell [...]
John and Susan Chalfant House, c. 1863. The John and Susan Chalfant house on the corner of Lansing and Main Street in Mendocino. The figures in the foreground are most probably Susan Chalfant with her daughter, Mattie. John Edward Chalfant came to California from Pennsylvania in 1850. He married the sister of Martha Ford, and the home he built was almost identical to Jerome and [...]
Wedding portrait of Elizabeth Broderick Carlson, 1859. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) November 28, 1880 - Mrs. Elizabeth Carlson died. She was born in County Cork, Ireland around 1828, and it’s unknown when she immigrated to the United States. She first married Mathew Kupp, who was born in New York. In 1853, their son, John, was born in Newark, New Jersey, and the [...]
A view of buildings along west Main Street in Mendocino, looking westward between 1874 and 1878. The photograph would have been taken four to eight years after the devastating fire of 1870, which destroyed all the buildings that originally stood on this block. On the right is the Chinese laundry, with a sign over the front porch that reads, "Chung Kow Washing and Ironing." A set [...]
Valentine-Mason House, 1972. (Kelley House Collection, Kelley House Photographs) In the Spring of 1941, Frank and Anne Valentine began construction on this home, located on the northeast corner of Little Lake and Ford Streets. Mrs. Valentine’s father, Carl Sorensen of Oakland, was in charge of the construction work. In April, a concrete foundation was poured. Anne was the Home Economics teacher at Mendocino High [...]